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September 2016

FCC Faces Tough Timeline Over the Next Few Months

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler has an ambitious agenda ahead of him as the agency eyes rules in three telecommunications areas that face staunch opposition from large factions of the private sector. Chairman Wheeler wants the FCC to set price caps on business data services, open the cable set-top box marketplace, and implement privacy regulations on Internet service providers. He told reporters he aims to complete all those items before the end of the year. The stars will have to align perfectly for this to happen.

Sen Thune blasts FCC Chairman Wheeler on secrecy

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD) is calling on Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler to release the FCC’s latest proposal on rules for pay-television set-top boxes.

Thune’s letter was delivered a day after Chairman Wheeler indefinitely delayed a vote on his latest proposal to change the rules for set-top boxes, a market that has been dominated by cable companies. Wheeler’s rule would require companies to make their television feeds available as apps to other companies, such as Apple and Google, that might make set-top boxes. The decision to delay the vote shows Chairman Wheeler does not have support on the FCC for his rule to be approved at this time. Chairman Thune said the public should be able to see the latest version of the rule and be able to comment on it. “Your new proposal is intended to benefit consumers, yet those same consumers are not currently able to read this far-reaching new plan,” Chairman Thune wrote in the letter.

How Facebook could swing the election — and who will benefit if it does

There’s been a lot of consternation in recent months about Facebook’s impact on politics. If it’s not fears of partisan censorship and suppressed trending topics, it’s worries about echo chambers or hyper-targeted campaign ads. But in the upcoming presidential election, at least, Facebook’s influence will lie somewhere else: The social network is driving huge numbers of people to the polls — and most of those people are likely to vote Democrat.

This effect is not at all by design. Instead, it’s an accident of demographics. Facebook skews both young and female, which means the site’s powerful get-out-the-vote campaigns reach more potential voters in the Hillary Clinton camp. The same could be said of Twitter, which over-indexes with people of color. Or Airbnb, which is popular among older, white adults — those statistically most likely to be Republican voters.

What the FBI Files Reveal About Hillary Clinton’s Email Server

Hillary Clinton comes across in the FBI interviews as a disengaged tech user who sees the communication tools as little more than a means to an end. She has, according to multiple aides, never even learned how to use a desktop computer. Clinton regularly pumped those around her for help with her devices—even those, as her long-time aide Philippe Reines joked to the FBI, whose job had “zero percent” of their responsibilities focused on IT. Reines, whose name is redacted in the FBI files but whose identity is easily discernible, “likened it to your parents asking for technical help with their phone or computer.” Except that what Clinton turned to others for help with wasn’t an Amazon purchase or reading CNN.com: She needed help managing a massive trove of communications about the inner workings of the nation’s diplomacy and national security.

Over the course of five years, those emails lived first in her Chappaqua, New York, basement, then later in a data center in New Jersey, then they were FedExed across the country and possibly copied onto a thumb drive before being printed out, sorted and handed back to the State Department in 12 bankers’ boxes. The boxes soon found themselves at the center of an FBI investigation and led ultimately to the biggest controversy to shadow Clinton during the 2016 presidential campaign. But it all started with the strange home server.

This is its story.

Researchers ask federal court to unseal years of surveillance records

Two lawyers and legal researchers based at Stanford University have formally asked a federal court in San Francisco to unseal numerous records of surveillance-related cases, as a way to better understand how authorities seek such powers from judges.

This courthouse is responsible for the entire Northern District of California, which includes the region where tech companies such as Twitter, Apple, and Google, are based. According to the petition, Jennifer Granick and Riana Pfefferkorn were partly inspired by a number of high-profile privacy cases that have unfolded in recent years, ranging from Lavabit to Apple’s battle with the Department of Justice. In their 45-page petition, they specifically say that they don’t need all sealed surveillance records, simply those that should have been unsealed—which, unfortunately, doesn’t always happen automatically.

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