1. Monthly archive
  2. April 2016

April 2016

Egypt blocked Facebook Internet service over surveillance

Egypt blocked Facebook Free Basics Internet service at the end of 2015 after the US company refused to give the Egyptian government the ability to spy on users, apparently. Free Basics, launched in Egypt in October, is aimed at low-income customers, allowing anyone with a cheap computer or smartphone to create a Facebook account and access a limited set of Internet services at no charge. The Egyptian government suspended the service on Dec 30 and said at the time that the mobile carrier Etisalat had only been granted a temporary permit to offer the service for two months. Two sources with direct knowledge of discussions between Facebook and the Egyptian government said Free Basics was blocked because the company would not allow the government to circumvent the service's security to conduct surveillance. They declined to say exactly what type of access the government had demanded or what practices it wanted Facebook to change.

Joint Statement on Biannual FCC NTIA Spectrum Meeting

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration Administrator Lawrence Strickling met and discussed spectrum planning and management priorities. The Chairman reported that the Commission began the incentive auction March 29. They discussed the FCC and NTIA’s collective work to identify and prioritize opportunities to increase spectrum availability, including for 5G and other innovative uses. In an important example of this collaboration, both affirmed a continued commitment to taking the steps necessary to meet the President’s goal of making 500 megahertz of additional spectrum available for wireless broadband by 2020.”

Home developer built an ISP because state law restricts municipal broadband

Tennessee is at the center of a nationwide battle over whether cities and towns should be allowed to build broadband networks without facing restrictions that help private Internet service providers avoid competition from the public sector. But with a lawsuit and legislative battle over a Tennessee state law still pending, one home developer decided to build his own ISP.

John "Thunder" Thornton of Chattanooga (TN) needed to install high-speed Internet for "his mountaintop residential development in Marion County," but was unable to get affordable service from AT&T or Charter Communications. He also couldn't get service from a Chattanooga electric utility that also provides Internet because the state law prevents it from expanding to nearby areas that lack fast, affordable service. To solve the problem, Thornton "spent more than $400,000 to build his own fiber network and link it with a power cooperative in Stevenson (AL) where fast broadband is available," the article said. He announced that his Jasper Highlands community in Jasper (TN) "is now able to offer high-speed, gigabit-per-second Internet service for all home sites in his 3,000-acre complex."

Would You Let Companies Monitor You For Money?

In the smart home of the (not-so-distant) future, sensors will record and process occupants’ every coming and going. Opened the fridge at 3 am? Noted. Washing machine hasn’t run in weeks? Your house knows. Daily habits, mealtimes, bedtime? All on file. That’s a lot of information, and the majority of people polled in a survey say they’d be very worried about hackers and criminals gaining access to their (hypothetical) smart-home data. But that doesn’t mean they’d want to keep that data to themselves. In fact, just over half of the 9,000 people surveyed worldwide said they’d share data about themselves with companies in exchange for cash. The survey was conducted last summer by Vanson Bourne, a technology-research company, on behalf of Intel Security.

In a way, its results represent the logical next step in the evolution of people’s relationship with data about themselves. For a while now, technology users have become increasingly comfortable trading their personal data for free services. “I use Gmail for free, but I know that Google will capture some information in return,” a respondent told Pew researchers in a privacy study earlier in 2016. “I’m fine with that.” If that’s the data-barter economy—give up your personal data and get convenient services in return—then we’re seeing the start of data as currency: Give up your personal data and you’ll be rewarded in actual dollars. For many, that’s a freeing prospect. It imbues the murky data-exchange process with a new transparency, and gives consumers more agency in deciding what to offer up and what to protect.

Rise of Ad Blocking Is the Ad Industry's Fault, Says Outgoing FTC Commissioner

A commissioner at the US Federal Trade Commission who is leaving the agency after six years of working on consumer privacy issues has some critical words for the ad industry. Departing FTC commissioner Julie Brill lamented the current state of consumer tracking and data collection on the web, linking the rampant rise of ad blockers with the ad industry's foot-dragging and non-cooperation in the commission's efforts to create privacy systems based on user consent.

"We've seen an incredible rise in consumers taking matters into their own hands, which is precisely what I said would happen back then," said Brill, who has tackled a host of consumer privacy issues during her tenure at the FTC. Like many critics, Brill points to Do Not Track, the failed system meant to allow consumers to opt-out of invasive tracking by flagging their browsers, which the ad industry fought tooth-and-nail and eventually killed by ignoring the flags outright. She says that the industry's resistance to doing things the “easy” way is at least partly to blame for the consumer response. "In some ways I think that effort fizzled because the multi-stakeholder process broke down," Brill said of the failed DNT program. "There were entities involved that weren't supporting the direction the group was heading and withdrew from the effort. It would have helped industry and consumers to have some rules of the road in online tracking."

5G is Coming! Wait – What’s 5G?

[Commentary] After the successes of 3G and 4G mobile services, something called 5G was inevitable. It’s still a ways off, but the outlines are taking shape. The hallmark of 5G mobile service will be blindingly fast data speeds, possibly in the gigabit-per-second range, faster than most US wired Internet services today, along with extremely short response times (“latencies”) measured in thousandths of a second.

There will be a downside. Very high data speeds take up a lot of radio bandwidth. To find sufficient bandwidth, designers will have to look toward the upper end of the usable spectrum. The Federal Communications Commission is now evaluating the 28, 37, and 39 GHz bands, and may add 24 GHz and possibly other bands. The problem: frequencies in this range do not propagate well, and in particular do not penetrate the materials used in commercial buildings. The old model of a cell tower serving both indoor and outdoor users for miles around – even blocks around – will not work here. A 5G mobile will have to be within a few hundred yards of its base station with nothing substantial separating them. There have been demonstrations in Europe for the last six months or so. Verizon and AT&T have each announced upcoming trials in the United States. But without firm specifications in place, chances are these will not closely resemble the eventual deployments. But when 5G finally does arrive, those cat videos will download in a flash.

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