August 2018

The FBI is asking a federal judge in CA to force Facebook to break the encryption on its Messenger app so investigators can listen in on an alleged MS-13 gang member's voice conversations. The case, which remains under seal, raises some of the same privacy concerns as the FBI’s unsuccessful effort to force Apple to engineer a way into the encrypted iPhone of one of the San Bernardino (CA) mass shooters. But the FBI’s request in the Facebook case could have a broader impact, since the bureau reportedly wants to intercept communications in real time.

Former Gov Phil Bredesen (D-TN) — and his Republican rival for the US Senate, House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) — have both been talking up plans to expand broadband access in rural places. But they're pitching two very different solutions. Bredesen's idea is proposing legislation that would allow the Tennessee Valley Authority to get rural residents hooked up.

In recent months, apparently, Facebook, Google, IBM, Microsoft and others have aggressively lobbied officials in the Trump administration and elsewhere to start outlining a federal privacy law. The law would have a dual purpose, they said: It would overrule the California law and instead put into place a kinder set of rules that would give the companies wide leeway over how personal digital information was handled. The efforts could set up a big fight with consumer and privacy groups.