Seymour Papert, 88, Dies; Saw Education’s Future in Computers [links to New York Times]
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY, AUGUST 2, 2016
Today's Events:
ELECTIONS 2016
Computer Systems Used by Clinton Campaign Are Said to Be Hacked, Apparently by Russians
Donald Trump says he will crack down on internet porn while in office
How Your Local TV Station Is Cashing In on Politics
Follow the Money: Presidential Campaign Spending on Hispanic TV [links to AdAge]
Mike Pence Signals Journalist Ban Could Loosen
The return of the Luddite president
Debate commission to Donald Trump: The dates are set [links to Benton summary]
Do NFL games really take eyeballs off presidential debates? [links to Washington Post]
Donald Trump's hacking comment rattles the cybersecurity industry [links to Benton summary]
Hillary Clinton to address Hispanic and Black journalists convention [links to Benton summary]
240 days and counting: Why Hillary won't do press conferences - The Hill analysis [links to Benton summary]
Why Reading Newspapers Might Make Donald Trump Happier [links to Huffington Post]
Koch Focuses On Senate, Turns From Trump [links to TVNewsCheck]
Trump vs. Clinton: The Better Candidate Doesn't Win, the Better Marketer Does [links to AdAge]
CNN To Host Libertarian Town Hall Aug 3 [links to Multichannel News]
Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine will answer questions on Quora, following Trump's Reddit AMA [links to Verge, The]
How Hillary Clinton created her plan for America [links to Washington Post]
INTERNET/BROADBAND
Washington state sues Comcast, says it sold near-worthless service plans
Google Fiber stalls in Nashville in fight over utility poles
The Limits of Net Neutrality - Susan Crawford op-ed [links to Benton summary]
Community Anchor Institutions: Broadband to the People - Tom Koutsky op-ed
Cox Communications Gigabit Internet Service Now Available in Wichita [links to telecompetitor]
Comcast Business Links Up With Atlanta Braves [links to Multichannel News]
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
FCC Reaches $200,000 Settlement With TP-Link In Wi-Fi Router Investigation - press release
T-Mobile says delay in approving LTE-U devices is stifling innovation [links to Benton summary]
FCC Works its Will on the WISP, Part II: Sentence Suspended, Somewhat - CommLawBlog [links to Benton summary]
OWNERSHIP
Verizon to acquire Fleetmatics for $2.4 billion
Verizon wants to run every part of your life - CNN analysis [links to Benton summary]
Inside Verizon’s Gamble on Digital Media [links to Wall Street Journal]
Marketers Root for Verizon as It Chases Facebook-Google Duopoly [links to AdAge]
Bruce Kushnick: Verizon’s Boston Faux-FiOS, “One Fiber” Strategy Exposed [links to Huffington Post]
Op-Ed: What Google Can Learn from Microsoft’s Antitrust Problems [links to Technology Academics Policy]
GlaxoSmithKline and Google team up to create new bioelectronics health company [links to Verge, The]
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
It's Official: MEGABYTE Act Signed Into Law [links to Benton summary]
Former FBI Technician Pleads Guilty To Passing Information To China [links to NPR]
The Struggle to Innovate: Government, Industry Team Up to Ease Cloud Purchasing [links to Government Technology]
Code for America's Quest to Save the Brigades [links to Benton summary]
SECURITY/PRIVACY
Privacy Paranoia: Is Your Smartphone Spying On You? - Technology Academics Policy op-ed [links to Benton summary]
Why Smartphones Are Now Adding Iris Scanners [links to Benton summary]
YouTube now encrypts 97 percent of its traffic [links to Verge, The]
Rep Steve Daines: We need to address the shortage of cybersecurity talent [links to Medium]
Russian spies claim they can now collect crypto keys—but don’t say how [links to Benton summary]
Bring cyberwarfare further out of the shadows [links to Washington Post editorial]
CONTENT
Tech Giants Target Terrorist Propaganda [links to Wall Street Journal]
Maps: the new frontier in the tech arms race [links to Guardian, The]
A Video Game That Lets You Torture Iraqi Prisoners [links to Atlantic, The]
NY governor orders ban on sex offenders playing Pokemon Go [links to Hill, The]
The day that video killed the radio star: Aug 1, MTV was Born [links to CNET]
ADVERTISING
Marketers Root for Verizon as It Chases Facebook-Google Duopoly [links to AdAge]
JOURNALISM
When a Native American Newspaper Gains its Independence [links to Huffington Post]
HEALTH
GlaxoSmithKline and Google team up to create new bioelectronics health company [links to Verge, The]
DIVERSITY
Apple is improving emoji gender diversity in iOS 10 [links to Verge, The]
GOVERNMENT PERFORMANCE
Letter from Commissioner Pai to Chris Henderson, CEO of USAC - press release [links to Benton summary]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
Nigerian authorities arrest alleged mastermind of $60M worth of online scams [links to Ars Technica]
Facebook lures Africa with free Internet - but what is the hidden cost? [links to Benton summary]
Russian spies claim they can now collect crypto keys—but don’t say how [links to Benton summary]
Uber’s rival in China isn’t just buying Uber — it’s buying its algorithms [links to Washington Post]
Medaling in messaging: The communications complications facing the Rio Olympics [links to Vox Media]
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ELECTIONS 2016
CLINTON CAMPAIGN COMPUTERS APPARENTLY HACKED BY RUSSIANS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Eric Lichtblau]
Computer systems used by Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign were hacked in an attack that appears to have come from Russia’s intelligence services, apparently. The apparent breach, coming after the disclosure in July that the Democratic National Committee’s computer system had been compromised, escalates an international episode in which Clinton campaign officials have suggested that Russia might be trying to sway the outcome of the election. Clinton’s campaign said that intruders had gained access to an analytics program used by the campaign and maintained by the national committee, but it said that it did not believe that the campaign’s own internal computer systems had been compromised. The Clinton campaign used the program that was hacked to analyze voter data, but it did not contain voters’ Social Security numbers or credit card information. The campaign said it was confident, based on a review by outside experts, that getting into the program would not have allowed the hackers to gain access to the campaign’s internal e-mails, voice mail messages or other data.
benton.org/headlines/computer-systems-used-clinton-campaign-are-said-be-hacked-apparently-russians | New York Times | ars technica
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TRUMP AND ONLINE PORN
[SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, AUTHOR: Craig Hlavaty]
On July 16, presidential nominee Donald Trump (R-NY) signed a pledge that he would fight internet porn and work to prevent the sexual exploitation of children online if elected president. The pledge he signed was authored by Enough is Enough, a bipartisan group that says it's been fighting internet porn since 1994. The organization says it has worked to combat "internet pornography, child pornography, sexual predation and cyber-bullying." Trump promised to "give serious consideration to appointing a Presidential Commission to examine the harmful public health impact of Internet pornography on youth, families and the American culture and the prevention of the sexual exploitation of children in the digital age."
benton.org/headlines/donald-trump-says-he-will-crack-down-internet-porn-while-office | San Francisco Chronicle
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HOW YOUR LOCAL TV STATION IS CASHING IN ON POLITICS
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Tim Higgins]
In the past three years, Tribune’s 42 stations have added 170 hours a week of local news programming, for a total of more than 80,000 hours annually. Tribune executives said in a May earnings call that they expect to increase political ad business by 20 percent this year from 2012 Local newscasts across the nation have already reaped an estimated $279 million in revenue from political ads since Jan. 1, or about 40 percent of the money spent on ads across broadcast and national cable television, according to Kantar Media, which tracks ad spending through its Campaign Media Analysis Group. “People who watch local news are more likely to vote in the same way that if I watch sports on TV I’m more likely to buy a ticket,” says Will Feltus, senior vice president at National Media, a Republican ad-buying firm. Saturation coverage has another benefit, he says: “Campaigns are never going to complain about having too many spots on the local news because they want to see themselves. All of the donors to the campaign, the candidate’s family and friends, and the people around the campaign all watch the local news.” The increase comes as local news viewership is falling. Since 2007 the average audience for late-night local news fell 22 percent, according to a June report from the Pew Research Center. Viewership in the morning and early evening decreased by 2 percent from 2014 to 2015, while viewership of early-morning newscasts has increased by the same amount. Adding news programming is attractive to station managers because it’s usually cheaper than buying syndicated shows to run in the daytime hours. That’s a concern for stations that aren’t affiliated with ABC, CBS, or NBC. “If you’re a Big Three, you’re getting 12 to 14 hours a day from the network,” says Larry Wert, president for broadcast media at Tribune, where only about a quarter of stations are affiliated with one of those three networks. “If you’re a Fox station, you’re really getting two hours plus sports.”
benton.org/headlines/how-your-local-tv-station-cashing-politics | Bloomberg
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PENCE SIGNALS JOURNALIST BAN COULD LOOSEN
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Vice presidential candidate Gov Mike Pence (R-IN) has signaled that the campaign may lighten up on its policy of excluding some news outlets from events due to their past coverage. Donald Trump banned the Washington Post from official campaign events after stories he did not like and has done the same in the past with BuzzFeed, Politico and Univision. But in an interview with conservative syndicated radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt recently, Gov Pence signaled there could be some movement on that front, though he made no promises. Hewitt said he had an issue with barring some reporters from the Trump campaign. "I’ve argued about this with Mr. Trump," Hewitt told Gov Pence. "It’s not in the American tradition. Will you argue with him to lift that ban, because reporters are part of the game. And we shouldn’t ban, Republicans should not be afraid of reporters. Will you do that?" "We’re all talking about that," responded Gov Pence. "I had a long, I have a long history, as you well know, Hugh, of advocating and defending for a free and independent press." Gov Pence, a former Indiana congressman, pointed out that he had authored legislation creating a national shield law to protect reporters. "So we’re going to have those conversations internally," he said, "and I fully expect in the next 100 days, we’re going to continue to be available to the media, whether they’re fair or unfair, and we’re going to take our case to the American people directly."
benton.org/headlines/mike-pence-signals-journalist-ban-could-loosen | Broadcasting&Cable
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THE RETURN OF THE LUDDITE PRESIDENT
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Nancy Scola]
Whether Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump wins the White House, one thing seems sure: The US will get a president with scant first-hand understanding of modern technology. Clinton's tech travails are all over the headlines, including the lax security of her home-brewed e-mail server and her documented struggles with fax machines — and the recently disclosed hacking of the Democratic National Committee's e-mails won't do much to burnish her party's image of cyber competence. But Trump's hardly a candidate for the Geek Squad either, despite the prolific round-the-clock tweeting strategy he uses to dominate the headlines. He has boasted that he hardly ever sends e-mails — and, like Clinton, he often relies on staff to print news articles off the Internet. “I’m just not a believer in e-mail,” Trump said during a news conference during which he criticized Clinton's use of a private server when she was secretary of state. The tech-aloofness of the two nominees marks a sharp break from President Barack Obama, who fought to keep a mobile phone when he entered the White House, spends downtime surfing his iPad and wrote about his awe at the power of the Internet in his 2006 book “The Audacity of Hope.” That raises the prospect that the next occupant of the Oval Office — charged with making decisions on issues like encryption, the fight against a social-media savvy Islamic State, and the growing automation of the American economy — will be less familiar with consumer technologies than the average citizens who use them.
benton.org/headlines/return-luddite-president | Politico
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
WASHINGTON STATE SUES COMCAST, SAYS IT SOLD NEAR-WORTHLESS SERVICE PLANS
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Jon Brodkin]
Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced a $100 million consumer protection lawsuit against Comcast, alleging that the nation's biggest cable company "engag[ed] in a pattern of deceptive practices constituting more than 1.8 million individual violations of the Washington Consumer Protection Act." Comcast's conduct affected about 500,000 customers who purchased service protection plans in Washington, Ferguson said. State officials filed the lawsuit in King County Superior Court, seeking refunds for consumers. The "lawsuit accuses Comcast of misleading 500,000 Washington consumers and deceiving them into paying at least $73 million in subscription fees over the last five years for a near-worthless 'protection plan' without disclosing its significant limitations," the state AG's announcement said. "Customers who sign up for Comcast’s Service Protection Plan pay a $4.99 monthly fee ostensibly to avoid being charged if a Comcast technician visits their home to fix an issue covered by the plan." Washington said it alleges 1.8 million violations because Comcast made false claims regarding the scope of its service protection plans to 700,000 customers, and "deceptively represented the scope of its Customer Guarantee to over 1.17 million Washington consumers." Comcast allegedly led customers to believe that they needed to buy service protection plans to get services that were actually covered for free by the "Customer Guarantee."
benton.org/headlines/washington-state-sues-comcast-says-it-sold-near-worthless-service-plans | Ars Technica | CNN
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GOOGLE FIBER STALLS IN NASHVILLE IN FIGHT OVER UTILITY POLES
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Jon Brodkin]
Google Fiber started examining Nashville (TN) for a possible deployment more than two and a half years ago, it confirmed plans to build in January 2015, and it started serving a few apartment and condominium buildings in the city in April of 2016. But further progress is being slowed in part by difficulties obtaining access to utility poles, and legislation designed to solve the problem is being resisted by incumbents AT&T and Comcast. Google Fiber needs access to thousands of telephone poles and must cooperate with the area's other Internet providers to install their wires. Most of the poles are owned by Nashville Electric Service, the local utility, while AT&T is the second biggest owner of utility poles in the city. When Google notifies the owner that it needs access to a pole, the owner "will then notify each telecom company that it needs to send a crew to the pole—one after another—to move their equipment and accommodate the new party," Nashville Scene wrote. "The process can take months, even if contractually mandated time frames are followed. Google Fiber officials and operatives working on their behalf suggest that’s not always the case."
benton.org/headlines/google-fiber-stalls-nashville-fight-over-utility-poles | Ars Technica
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COMMUNITY ANCHOR INSTITUTIONS: BROADBAND TO THE PEOPLE
[SOURCE: Daily Yonder, AUTHOR: Tom Koutsky]
[Commentary] In thinly-populated rural and tribal areas, community anchor institutions (CAIs) can be vitally important to connecting residents to the rest of the world. Unfortunately, because of economic factors, anchor institutions in rural and tribal areas have an especially difficult time obtaining high-capacity broadband connections at affordable rates. When implementing programs designed to increase access to broadband service in rural areas, federal, state, and local efforts should give high priority to the broadband needs of rural community anchor institutions.
[Koutsky serves as Chief Policy Counsel for Connected Nation]
benton.org/headlines/community-anchor-institutions-broadband-people | Daily Yonder
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
FCC REACHES $200K SETTLEMENT IN WI-FI ROUTER INVESTIGATION
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
The Federal Communications Commission’s Enforcement Bureau has reached a $200,000 settlement with TP-Link, resolving an investigation into certain Wi-Fi routers that were not in full compliance with Commission rules pertaining to power levels. As part of the settlement, TP-Link has agreed to adopt robust compliance measures to ensure that its existing and future Wi-Fi routers are in compliance. TP-Link has also agreed to work with the open-source community and Wi-Fi chipset manufacturers to enable consumers to install third-party firmware on their Wi-Fi routers. In its investigation, the Enforcement Bureau found that TP-Link marketed several Wi-Fi router models in the US that included a user setting that violated Section 15.15(b) of the Commission’s rules by enabling the routers to operate at power levels that exceed their approved parameters on certain restricted Wi-Fi channels. To resolve the matter, TP-Link has taken measures to halt the sale of noncompliant units and ensure that new units are in compliance. TP-Link cooperated with the Bureau’s investigation and, as part of the consent decree, has agreed to pay a $200,000 fine and implement a compliance program to ensure future compliance with the Commission’s rules and regulations.
benton.org/headlines/fcc-reaches-200000-settlement-tp-link-wi-fi-router-investigation | Federal Communications Commission | Broadcasting&Cable
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OWNERSHIP
VERIZON TO ACQUIRE FLEETMATICS FOR $2.4 BILLION
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Brett Molina]
It appears Verizon wasn't done making acquisitions. One week after snagging the core assets of ailing tech giant Yahoo for $4.8 billion, Verizon announced it will acquire fleet management solutions company Fleetmatics for about $2.4 billion. The Dublin-based Fleetmatics boasts technology to allow small- and medium-sized companies to manage mobile workforces. The company employs 1,200 workers, and serves 37,000 customers as of March of 2016. "Fleetmatics is a market leader in North America -- and increasingly internationally," said Andrés Irlando, CEO of Verizon Telematics. The deal is expected to close during the fourth quarter of 2016.
benton.org/headlines/verizon-acquire-fleetmatics-24-billion | USAToday
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