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October 2016

Broadband Privacy Enters the Home Stretch

On October 6, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler announced the agenda for the FCC’s October open meeting and circulated a proposal to give broadband consumers increased choice over their personal information. The broadband privacy proposal requires broadband Internet access service providers (ISPs) to get consumer's' explicit consent before using or sharing personal data such as their Web browsing history, app usage history, geolocation information and the content of their e-mails and online messages. But the current proposal is a little weaker than the one offered for public comment in March, having been water-ed down after industry complaint. Let’s take a look.

US Formally Accuses Russia of Stealing DNC E-mails

The Obama Administration formally accused the Russian government of stealing and disclosing e-mails from the Democratic National Committee and from a range of prominent individuals and institutions, immediately raising the issue of whether President Barack Obama will seek sanctions or other retaliation for the cyberattacks. In a statement from the director of national intelligence, James Clapper Jr., and the Department of Homeland Security, the government said the leaked e-mails that have appeared on a variety of websites “are intended to interfere with the US election process.” The e-mails were posted on the well-known WikiLeaks site and newer ones that have run under the names DCLeaks.com and Guccifer 2.1. “We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities,” the statement said. It did not name President Vladimir Putin, but that appeared to be the intention.

For weeks, aides to President Obama have been debating a range of possible responses to the Russia action, from targeted economic sanctions to authorizing covert action against the computer servers in Russia and elsewhere that have been traced as the origin of the attacks. The White House has not said whether President Obama has reviewed those options, or decided on any. The statement said that the recent “scanning and probing” of election systems “in most cases originated from servers operated by a Russian company,” but did not say the Russian government was responsible for those probes.

Improving Accessibility through Technology

[Commentary] Thirty million Americans have some type of cognitive disability. These individuals may experience difficulty in understanding or processing information, solving problems, or responding to stimuli. This includes individuals with intellectual disabilities, developmental disabilities, brain injuries, and learning disabilities. More than two decades after passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, we are at an historic juncture in addressing the needs of this population. Today, digital technology offers us the greatest opportunity in history to use technology to attack challenges that have affected individuals since the beginning of time. It is our responsibility to do everything possible to seize this opportunity.

The Frontrunner in the Race to be a "Gigabyte State"

[Commentary] Practical ingenuity is still on display in Connecticut, which is poised to become the first “Gigabit State” in the country. Talk about your labor-saving, productivity-enhancing inventions — dozens of Connecticut towns are now on a path towards installing wholesale fiber networks connecting all homes and businesses. And those flinty Yankees won’t be paying for the installation of these open access networks themselves, because fiber, with its predictable up-front cost and steady returns, is an excellent longterm investment for private companies.

Meanwhile, any ISP will be able to use these networks to sell service directly to homes and businesses. Result: world-class connectivity at low prices for Connecticut residents in towns across the state — including in rural areas where getting online is a struggle. As Elin Katz, the Consumer Counsel of the State of Connecticut, puts it, “It’s like building the road — and anyone can drive their cars on it.”

[Susan Crawford is the John A. Reilly Clinical Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and a co-director of the Berkman Center.]

AT&T Enters CenturyLink Market with Competitive AT&T Broadband Wireless Service

AT&T revealed that it is trialing a 100 Mbps competitive fixed wireless broadband service to “multiple” apartment complexes in Minneapolis, a CenturyLink market. The AT&T broadband wireless offering is particularly noteworthy in that it is being offered outside the company’s traditional local service territory in competition with other providers for fixed broadband – and according to a press release, the company hopes to expand the offering to other out-of-footprint markets. The AT&T broadband wireless offering initially will support speeds up to 100 Mbps per customer using millimeter wave spectrum in a point-to-point configuration. But the company said it plans to make faster speeds available – “likely a speed tier of 500 Mbps” – in the trial properties. Additional out-of-footprint broadband wireless service plans will depend on the success of the Minneapolis trial, AT&T said. Other markets under consideration for possible expansion include but are not limited to Boston, Denver, New Jersey, New York City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Seattle and Washington D.C.

The media’s Weimar moment

[Commentary] In June 1954 on national television, Joe Welch, the US Army’s chief counsel, exposed Senator Joseph McCarthy’s dubious morality with those two legendary questions: “Have you no decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?” Such was the novelty of television back then that having given Sen McCarthy an authoritative forum for his views, TV could now serve as the instrument of his destruction. We all know what followed. The media attained the highest point of its legitimacy and authority during the Vietnam War with the publication of the Pentagon Papers and then the unfolding of the Watergate scandal. That ascendancy ran parallel to the rapid discrediting of politics as a vocation. Journalists were heroes. Politicians were scoundrels.

Thirty years later, with the revelations of the media’s blindness to and sometimes complicity with the lies that led America into the Iraq War, journalists joined politicians in the space of detention into which public opinion puts those figures who betray the people’s trust. From that point on, America, once dubbed the oldest young country in the world by Gertrude Stein, began to experience the historical version of a senior moment. It began to undergo a Weimar moment.

[Lee Siegel is the author of five books and the recipient of a National Magazine Award for Reviews and Criticism. His forthcoming book, The Draw: A Memoir, will be published in April.]

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