April 2015

Web encryption technology is 20 years old. So why isn't every site using it?

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) has been around for 20 years, and it's been widely used for financial transactions since the 1990s. But back then, the technology was too slow to be practical to use on every website. But as the technology has improved and computers have gotten faster, that's been changing. Sites like Facebook and Twitter began using SSL in the last few years, and media organizations like the New York Times are currently working to adopt it. Advocates hope that SSL will become ubiquitous in the next few years. People usually think of SSL as a way to protect people's privacy. When you browse a website that's not protected by SSL over a Wi-Fi network, the information you upload and download can be intercepted by other people near you. SSL prevents this by scrambling the data before it's sent across the network.

Security researchers at Google point out another huge benefit of using SSL across the web: it helps fight cyberattacks. Webpages protected with SSL aren't just hard to intercept, they're also hard to modify, which means users won't be exposed to the risks of third parties tampering with the websites they visit. Google has started to apply significant pressure on website owners to upgrade to SSL. In 2014, the company announced it would start penalizing websites that don't adopt it by docking their search results. The penalty is small for now, but Google says it may increase it in the coming years. That creates an added incentive for webmasters to get on board, improving security for both their users and the web as a whole.

Sprint, T-Mobile, Dish join forces with others to press FCC on incentive auction rules

T-Mobile, Sprint, Dish Network, C Spire Wireless and a group of policy and public interest groups have forged a new alliance intended to pressure the Federal Communications Commission to craft 600 MHz auction rules that they say will benefit smaller carriers and increase wireless competition.

The group, called SaveWirelessChoice, also includes the Competitive Carriers Association, COMPTEL, Computer & Communications Industry Association, Consumer Federation of America, Engine, NTCA-The Rural Broadband Association, Public Knowledge, the Rural Wireless Association and Writers Guild of America West. The coalition has two main goals. It wants the FCC to hold the incentive auction of 600 MHz broadcast TV spectrum in early 2016 as planned. Secondly, it wants a bigger chunk of spectrum reserved in the auction for smaller carriers -- to 40 MHz, or at least half of the spectrum available in the auction.

Diverging Fortunes for Comcast and AT&T Deals

While Comcast has dropped its $45.2 billion takeover of Time Warner Cable under pressure from regulators, AT&T’s $49 billion acquisition of DirecTV is moving through the pipeline. At its core, the AT&T deal presents fewer problems for regulators than Comcast’s combination, which would have created a company that is at once a giant Internet service provider, a dominant seller of cable television and a significant content company. AT&T’s deal, meanwhile, would join its regional pay-TV business with DirecTV’s satellite operation, which lacks a robust broadband offering.

The divergence in fortunes signals that regulators are more worried about providing choice in Internet access and new, online video options than they are about concentration in pay TV. Apparently, the Federal Communications Commission sees the AT&T deal as helping competition and aiding the spread of broadband into rural areas that lack service. The regulator hasn’t sat down with AT&T to finalize the concessions for the deal, something that needs to happen before an order is written up and sent to the commissioners to vote. But, apparently, the commission’s staff is inclined to recommend the approval of the deal. The Justice Department is also reviewing the deal, and apparently, has yet to raise any significant issues.

No Reason To Cheer Comcast-TWC Collapse

[Commentary] With Comcast, broadcasters have been dealing with a cable operator that has been more willing than most to meet their demands for retransmission consent fees and a broadcast network (NBC) that has been less aggressive in its reverse comp demands. With the merger now undone, Comcast will be free of conditions governing its relations with affiliates in 2018 rather than 2024 and Time Warner will be cut loose to resume its confrontational retransmission negotiating tactics and its assault on broadcasters' retransmission rights

The Future May Belong to Web and Mobile Video, but TV Will Survive

[Commentary] Television is dead! Long live television! This, the ancient cry of royal succession, is entirely appropriate to herald what's happening right now -- literally before our eyes -- to the medium of television. TV has ruled our lives and lifestyles, our news and entertainment, our politics and (through advertising) our economics since network broadcasting began in 1949. And now its sovereignty is over. "Linear TV has been on an amazing 50-year run, [but] Internet TV is starting to grow," Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said earlier in April, in announcing superb earnings for the streaming TV pioneer. "Clearly over the next 20 years, Internet TV is going to replace linear TV." Far be it for me to disagree. For what are the Digital Content NewFronts but an example of the revolution that is roiling television's half-century hegemony? Well, pssst, buddy, let me let you in on a little secret: The princeling that's replacing television … is television. There are a lot of unknowns. But three things are certain: Consumers want access to great content. Brands want to deeply engage with their consumers. And television will no doubt evolve to survive.

[Randall Rothenberg is president and CEO of Interactive Advertising Bureau]

The FCC’s $365 Million Man

In his first year on the job as chief of the Federal Communications Commission's Enforcement Bureau, Travis LeBlanc has issued some of the largest fines in the agency's history. AT&T agreed to pay $105 million for placing unwanted charges on consumers' phone bills. T-Mobile had to pay $90 million over similar allegations. Marriott Hotels paid $600,000 for blocking its customers' Wi-Fi hotspots. And CenturyLink and Verizon got fined $16 million and $3.4 million, respectively, for a software glitch that blocked 911 calls for six hours. In total, the FCC, working with other agencies, has collected more than $365 million in fines, settlements, and refunds for consumers since LeBlanc took office in March 2014, according to a National Journal review of agency records.

LeBlanc is a new kind of enforcement chief for the FCC. Previous heads of the bureau have usually been career FCC lawyers, with extensive experience in telecommunications issues in other parts of the agency. They were used to working closely with companies, often negotiating with them as the FCC crafted regulations. But LeBlanc is a prosecutor, who has little interest in playing nice. He has already helped the FCC earn a tougher reputation on enforcement, and his role will only grow under the agency's controversial net neutrality rules, which will empower him to review complaints and launch investigations into a range of disputes over Internet access. LeBlanc described his philosophy as a "public-health" approach to enforcement by focusing on prevention rather than just addressing problems after they have occurred. He has issued public advisories to get companies in line without having to issue any fines. When he does crack down on a company, he says he tries to pick the worst offender to send a message to the rest of the industry and to pick cases that will matter to the most number of consumers.

Poll: Cyber should top Congress’s tech agenda

According to a Morning Consult poll, four in 10 voters believe cybersecurity should be at the top of Congress’s technology agenda in 2015. A plurality of voters believe preventing cyberattacks should be the main priority for Congress on the technology front, followed by approving data security standards (20 percent). Surveillance reform ranks third with 10 percent, followed by net neutrality (8 percent) and drone regulations (7 percent). Another 14 percent did not have an answer.

According to the poll 56 percent of voters approve of the Federal Communications Commission's open Internet rules, while 27 disapprove. Another 17 percent had no opinion. The poll also indicated young people (17 percent) and males (16 percent) are most likely to say surveillance reform should be a top priority.

Using consumer health data?

With the help of innovative businesses, consumers are taking a more active role in managing their health information. How? Maybe it’s an app that monitors their exercise habits, a device that lets diabetics track glucose levels, or a site where patients with the same condition share information. In addition, people are starting to download their information into personal health records, partially because of regulatory initiatives promoting secure online access to medical data. Much of this activity happens outside the doctor’s office. New products and services offer big benefits: increased engagement in personal health and fitness, reduced healthcare costs, and improved outcomes, to name just a few. But there are privacy and security considerations, too.

Companies collecting, using, or sharing health information may think they’re covered by HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, enforced by HHS. But HIPAA applies only to certain “covered entities” like healthcare providers, health plans, and healthcare clearinghouses. HIPAA also covers their business associates -- companies that help covered entities carry out their healthcare functions. But if your product is marketed directly to consumers and you’re not working with a HIPAA covered entity, HIPAA doesn’t apply to you. That doesn’t mean there’s no applicable law, of course. The FTC Act gives the agency authority to take action against a wide variety of deceptive or unfair practices by app developers, device manufacturers, and others. Regardless of which agency covers your business, sound privacy and security practices are a key component in building consumer confidence in this new marketplace.

The Sensor-Rich, Data-Scooping Future

This sensor explosion is only starting: Huawei, a Chinese maker of computing and communications equipment with $47 billion in revenue, estimates that by 2025 over 100 billion things, including smartphones, vehicles, appliances and industrial equipment, will be connected to cloud computing systems. The Internet will be almost fused with the physical world. The way Google now looks at online clicks to figure out what ad to next put in front of you will become the way companies gain once-hidden insights into the patterns of nature and society. General Electric, Google and others expect that knowing and manipulating these patterns is the heart of a new era of global efficiency, centered on machines that learn and predict what is likely to happen next.

“The core thing Google is doing is machine learning,” said Eric Schmidt, Google’s executive chairman. Sensor-rich self-driving cars, connected thermostats or wearable computers, he said, are part of Google’s plan “to do things that are likely to be big in five to 10 years. It just seems like automation and artificial intelligence makes people more productive, and smarter.” The great data science companies of our sensor-packed world will have experts in arcane reaches of statistics, computer science, networking, visualization and database systems, among other fields. Graduates in those areas are already in high demand. Does this mean that the computing tools that were supposed to empower us all will simply make the wealthiest companies even wealthier? Michael Chui, a partner at McKinsey Global Institute thinks that much analysis, like aerospace or agriculture, will also require specialist knowledge of what the critical data means, and how new patterns can be exploited. “The tools will get better, and that will raise the bar, but you will still need domain knowledge,” he said. It is of course possible that both things are true: Big companies like Google and Amazon will have lots of commodity data analysis, and specialists will find niches. That means for most of us, the answer to the future will be in knowing how to ask the right kinds of questions.

Wefi Study Reveals Fastest Wireless Carriers on Roadways

According to market research from Wefi, in-vehicle smartphone usage is on the rise in the US and other countries and leading mobile platform providers including Apple and Google, are keen to cash in on the trend. Offering additional insight as to growing use of mobile devices while driving, a market research report from mobile data analytics specialist Wefi presents the results of an analysis of data “collected from over 70,000 devices driven over 3.5 million miles on six major interstates.” According to “Smartphone Usage Trends on US Highways,” T-Mobile is providing the fastest wireless Internet service on three US interstate highways: I-495, I-95 and I-55. Verizon Wireless’s wireless data connections were fastest on I-405 and I-110, while AT&T is providing the fastest wireless service on I-820.

Turning to the types of apps being used by drivers and passengers while traveling on the six US interstate highways, Wefi concludes that “paper maps are merely a memory with navigation apps used for 80 percent of the driving.” Furthermore, just over one-third (34 percent) made use of music streaming apps. Pandora was the most popular, with nearly 35 percent using the popular music streaming service. GooglePlay was used by 15.6 percent. A significant proportion of survey respondents -- 25 percent -- were also tapping into video streaming apps. Eighty-seven percent reported watching YouTube streaming videos in-vehicle. Just over 11 percent watched Netflix videos, while one and less than one percent watched streaming video via Hulu and HBO, respectively.

Benton

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