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April 2017

After vote to kill privacy rules, users try to “pollute” their Web history

While the US government is giving Internet service providers free rein to track their customers’ Internet usage for purposes of serving personalized advertisements, some Internet users are determined to fill their browsing history with junk so ISPs can’t discover their real browsing habits. Scripts and browser extensions might be able to fill your Web history with random searches and site visits. But will this actually fool an ISP that scans your Web traffic and shares it with advertising networks?

2015 Digital Divide Index

The digital divide is the number-one threat to community and economic development in the 21st century. Public policy 101 argues that, first and foremost, the problem needs to be defined and agreed upon in order to explore potential solutions. This report introduces a county-level digital divide index (DDI). The DDI ranges in value from 0 to 100, where 100 indicates the highest digital divide. This report presents findings for the 2014 updated version as well as the 2015 version. Some key findings include:

The percent of people without access to fixed broadband 25/3 decreased significantly between 2014 and 2015. However, this decrease took place mainly among counties with an already low digital divide. The number of people living in counties where the digital divide was higher (two higher quartiles) had a slight increase from 39.3 million in 2014 versus 39.5 million in 2015.

Efforts to reduce the digital divide will require public–private partnerships that deal with broadband infrastructure and digital literacy at the same time. Otherwise, residents may not subscribe to recently upgraded broadband connectivity, or those who increased their digital skills may run into lack of connectivity, expensive plans, and/or inadequate speeds.

Entercom-CBS Merger Public Notice

On March 20, 2017, pursuant to an Agreement and Plan of Merger dated February 2, 2017, Entercom Communications Corp. (Entercom) and CBS Corporation (CBS), and its wholly-owned subsidiary CBS Radio, Inc. (CBSR), jointly submitted applications to the Commission seeking consent to the transfer of control and assignment of certain licenses pursuant to Section 310(d) of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended.

The proposed transfer of control and assignment of these licenses is part of a larger transaction whereby: (1) CBSR will be separated from CBS pursuant to a Master Separations Agreement dated February 2, 2017; and (2) a wholly-owned subsidiary of Entercom (Constitution Merger Sub Corp.) will merge with CBSR, with the merged CBSR surviving as a whollyowned subsidiary of Entercom. Contemporaneously, Entercom will contribute all of the issued and outstanding equity interests of its direct subsidiary, Entercom Radio, LLC, to CBSR, resulting in a substantial change in control of Entercom from the current ownership. The jointly filed applications are listed in the Appendix to this Public Notice.

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