BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY, JULY 7, 2014
What’s on the agenda this week? http://benton.org/calendar/2014-07-06--P1W/
National Insecurity Agency: How the NSA's Surveillance Programs Undermine Internet Security http://benton.org/calendar/2014-07-06--P1W/
EDUCATION
E-Rate Modernization: It’s About Time - Blair Levin op-ed
Urban libraries say they’re getting shortchanged in a battle for Wi-Fi funding
Teachers threaten to derail Wi-Fi push
Bridging the Digital Divide in Classrooms - op-ed [links to web]
Edtech Startups Protest FCC Proposal for ‘Two-Tiered Internet’ [links to web]
Charter Schools' E-rate Requests Much Higher Than Other Schools' [links to web]
Federal Lawmakers Probe Contracts, Laws on Student Data Privacy [links to web]
INTERNET/BROADBAND/TELECOMMUNICATIONS
Net Threats - research
Decision Time: Fast Lanes for the 1% and Slow Lanes for the 99%? - Michael Copps op-ed
Fight over network neutrality goes to Congressional Black Caucus
FCC’s ‘fast lane’ Internet plan threatens free exchange of ideas - op-ed
Where’s Google in the Net Neutrality Fight?
Disclosing interconnection agreements creates anticompetitive risks - op-ed
Order restored to universe as Microsoft surrenders confiscated No-IP domains [links to web]
Rep Eshoo wants to put cork in .wine websites [links to web]
PRIVACY/SECURITY
Tighter Security for Cellphones at Overseas Airports [links to web]
Privacy vs personalization: The risks and rewards of engineered serendipity - op-ed [links to web]
Scammers, hackers and spies hit campaign trail [links to web]
Is Your Android Device Telling the World Where You've Been?
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
Now on Your Cellphone Bill, Services You Never Wanted
T-Mobile’s all-caps, exclamation-filled response to the FTC’s billing accusations
US regulators should just ban premium SMS products outright - analysis [links to web]
Millennials Spend 14.5 Hours Per Week on Smartphones [links to web]
GM Pitches Wi-Fi in 2015 Cars [links to web]
Time Warner Cable anxious to exploit expanded 5 GHz access for 'community Wi-Fi' [links to web]
CONTENT
Participant Index Seeks to Determine Why One Film Spurs Activism, While Others Falter
ESPN and Univision are scoring big World Cup ratings [links to web]
Tight Script of Soccer Isn’t Hostage to Advertisers - analysis [links to web]
YouTube reportedly in talks with indie labels to avoid blocking videos [links to web]
Screwing with your emotions is Facebook's entire business - analysis [links to web]
Readers Recall Tablet Magazine Ads at Same Rate as Print Ads [links to web]
What’s Gained and Lost as the New York Times Ends Many Blogs - editorial [links to web]
EFF Complains to FTC About Facebook Emotion Study
Nielsen: 2014 digital music sales plummet compared to 2013’s first half [links to web]
OWNERSHIP
A New Media Landscape in Sun Valley [links to web]
Is Silicon Valley Funding the Wrong Stuff? [links to web]
Authors weigh in on Amazon, Hachette dispute
HEALTH
Mobile health device market to grow 8X to $42B [links to web]
One in Seven Would Give Up Friends Before Smartphone [links to web]
Swear Off Social Media, for Good or Just for Now - analysis [links to web]
DIVERSITY
E-sports cannot fight segregation with segregation - op-ed
GOVERNMENT AND COMMUNICATIONS
NSA targets Tor administrators and people searching for privacy tools, reports claim
Privacy, Civil Liberties and the NSA - Kevin Taglang analysis
In NSA-intercepted data, those not targeted far outnumber the foreigners who are
Officials Defend NSA After New Privacy Details Are Reported [links to web]
Why news that the NSA is listening to our phone conversations isn’t news at all - analysis [links to web]
Crunch time for NSA reform
Former NSA Chief Clashes With ACLU Head In Debate [links to web]
RESEARCH
EPIC Complains to FTC About Facebook Emotion Study
The journal that published Facebook’s psychological study is raising a red flag about it
The Next Class of New America Fellows - press release [links to web]
AGENDA
FCC To Hold Open Commission Meeting July 11, 2014 - public notice
STORIES FROM ABROAD
Russian lawmakers pass new bill restricting Internet
Google Reinstates European Links to Articles From The Guardian [links to web]
‘Right to be forgotten’ opens can of worms for Google [links to web]
The EU’s Right To Be Forgotten Is A Mess & How Google’s Making It Worse - analysis [links to web]
Principles Are No Match for Europe’s Love of US Web Titans
Google's Schmidt: Trade embargo hinders Cuba's Internet [links to web]
MORE ONLINE
Regulation Struggles to Keep Pace With Digital-Driven Disruption - op-ed [links to web]
Prince, Facebook and Van Jones unite to bridge digital divide [links to web]
EDUCATION
IT’S ABOUT TIME
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Blair Levin]
[Commentary] Over the last decade, a diversity of groups, from the State Education Technology Directors Association to the LEAD Commission to the Department of Education, among many others, have advocated that the FCC modernize the E-Rate program. Now that the FCC is finally set to act, how do the prospects for improvement appear? We put that question to Blair Levin (1), who was the Chief of Staff at the FCC when the program was initially conceived and implemented, and also was the principal architect of the National Broadband Plan, which proposed a number of E-Rate related changes now being considered by the FCC. Here is his response.
http://benton.org/node/192857
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
URBAN LIBRARIES SAY THEY’RE GETTING SHORTCHANGED IN A BATTLE FOR WI-FI FUNDING
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Brian Fung]
As far too many of us have learned as a result of the recession, the public library is often the only place where out-of-work Americans can go to apply for jobs and unemployment benefits online. In many cases, the only way libraries can afford to offer those services is with help from the federal government. Through a public program known as E-Rate, Washington gives institutions a bit of money each year to defray the costs of buying Internet service and equipment. That initiative got a big boost recently, with the Federal Communications Commission announcing plans to spend $1 billion a year for the next two years on better Wi-Fi, amid a broader push to modernize the E-Rate program. Now the FCC has to decide how to divide up that $2 billion -- and libraries are smack in the center of a brewing fight about it. Library directors from five cities, including Seattle, Memphis and Hartford (CT), have sent letters to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler saying that they stand to be shortchanged if the commission moves forward with a plan to tie the money to the square footage of their facilities. Under the proposal, the FCC would give libraries a budget for Wi-Fi funding at a rate of $1 per square foot -- which some say isn't nearly enough. "Wi-Fi costs are not merely a function of the square footage of a room with wireless connectivity," wrote Matthew Poland, chief executive of the public library system in Hartford (CT). "Wi-Fi performance is a function of users." Poland argued that other libraries -- such as those serving wealthy suburbanites -- tend to be bigger. Not only would the proposed formula give more funding to suburban facilities, but those libraries would be taking in money that might be put to better use elsewhere. Inner-city libraries, Poland wrote, serve more users in a tighter space; their patrons tend to be less wealthy and disproportionately unemployed or under-employed. The upshot: It isn't fair for large, rich libraries to get even more money when small, needy libraries might get less.
benton.org/node/192710 | Washington Post
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
TEACHERS THREATEN TO DERAIL WI-FI PUSH
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Kate Tummarello]
Educators are threatening to derail the Obama Administration’s proposals to boost wireless Internet in schools over fears districts could be left with inadequate funds or cuts to other services. A new plan from Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler would funnel $5 billion for Wi-Fi over the next five years through the agency’s E-Rate program. The FCC is set to vote on the plan at its monthly meeting on July 11, but sources now say it’s unclear if it has the votes to pass. Democratic Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel and Republican Commissioner Ajit Pai have advocated for reforms to the E-Rate program, but it's unclear if either will support Wheeler's proposal as currently written. Sources said the plan’s specifics are in flux as Chairman Wheeler works to rally support from other commissioners and advocacy groups ahead of the vote. “There are still some Commissioners who are listening to educators in the field, and we hope their voices ring loudly in next week’s meeting,” said an education advocate opposed to the proposal.
benton.org/node/192874 | Hill, The
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
INTERNET/BROADBAND/TELECOMMUNICATIONS
NET THREATS
[SOURCE: Pew Internet and American Life Project, AUTHOR: Janna Anderson, Lee Rainie]
According to experts canvassed by Pew Internet and American Life Project, the biggest threats aren't a rise in hacking attacks or new waves of Internet crime. They're government and big online corporations. Control and consolidation were the top threats for experts canvassed by Pew's Internet and American Life Project. Pew asked more than 1,400 experts -- academics, theorists and those who work in the technology industry -- to weigh in on what risks the Internet faces through 2025. The majority pointed to government surveillance, restrictive regulation and corporate greed as the things most likely to kill the idea that the Web is a free-flowing network of information. Plenty expressed concern that the Internet will fracture due to government policies, such as those that limit access to the Web as some governments did during the Arab Spring, aggressive intellectual property laws or even well-meaning policies in Canada and Australia that aggressively filter all Internet traffic to combat child pornography. These efforts, experts said, cross the line -- or at least flirt with it.
The Net Threats These Experts Fear are:
Actions by nation-states to maintain security and political control will lead to more blocking, filtering, segmentation, and balkanization of the Internet.
Trust will evaporate in the wake of revelations about government and corporate surveillance and likely greater surveillance in the future.
Commercial pressures affecting everything from Internet architecture to the flow of information will endanger the open structure of online life.
Efforts to fix the TMI (too much information) problem might over-compensate and actually thwart content sharing.
benton.org/node/192477 | Pew Internet and American Life Project | Washington Post | Expert views on Pew Internet and American Life Project report | More expert views on Pew Internet and American Life Project report | USAToday | NPR | Revere Digital | Poynter
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
DECISION TIME
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Michael Copps]
[Commentary] More and more people now understand the Internet to be the most opportunity-creating tool of our time. It is, increasingly, the door to jobs, education, healthcare, equal opportunity, and to the news and information we need to sustain our civic dialogue. But the question now is: opportunity for whom? Is the Net going to be the tool of the many that helps us all live better -- or will it become the playground of the privileged few that only widens the many divides that are creating a stratified and unequal America? Are we heading toward an online future with fast lanes for the 1% and slow lanes for the 99%? Well, it’s decision time. Now. The Federal Communications Commission is considering rules that would permit giant Internet Service Providers (ISPs) like Comcast, Verizon and AT&T to create fast lanes for their business partners and friends who can afford to pay what will inevitably be very heavy freight, while start-ups, innovators, and potential competitors are priced out of the express lane. The fate of the Internet will be decided in the next few months, so this is the time for concerned citizens to speak out.
http://benton.org/node/192856
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
NETWORK NEUTRALITY AND CBC
[SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, AUTHOR: Joe Garofoli]
Color of Change called out 10 members of the Congressional Black Caucus for opposing efforts to keep the Internet a level playing field for all. “For communities of color -- who are often disadvantaged and don’t start off at the same point -- being able to have a level playing field on the Internet, being able to have our information seen just as quickly as big corporations is critical,” said Color of Change Executive Director Rashad Robinson. “So for us, protecting that is important.” Robinson said it isn’t easy to call out members of the Congressional Black Caucus, many of whom the organization supports. “It is a tough choice,” Robinson said. “It’s certainly not fun to call out members of Congress where your members live, and who you want to be on your side, and who you believe should be doing the right thing. But our job is not to serve members of Congress, their job is to serve us.”
benton.org/node/192915 | San Francisco Chronicle
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
FCC’S ‘FAST LANE’ INTERNET PLAN THREATENS FREE EXCHANGE OF IDEAS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Yancey Strickler]
[Commentary] The world was introduced to Kickstarter when our Web site went live in 2009. One thing we didn’t have to worry about: access to the Internet. We didn’t have to negotiate a deal with a cable company or other Internet service provider (ISP). Such roadblocks would have created enormous logistical and financial hurdles -- ones so big they might have shut us down before we got started. But that’s the world that start-ups will be born into if the Federal Communications Commission moves forward with its proposed rules allowing paid prioritization -- a system where Internet carriers can charge for access to a “fast lane.” Once a fast lane exists, it will become the de facto standard on the Web. Sites unwilling or unable to pay up will be buffered to death: unloadable, unwatchable and left out in the cold. It won’t be enough anymore to have a great idea and to execute it well. New entrepreneurs will have to pay their ISP tax, too. This proposed system would incentivize entrepreneurs to divert resources from their customers and staff and into paid deals with ISPs. Trading healthy competition for deep pockets is a terrible way to create an innovative, competitive economy. It’s also a terrible way to promote a vibrant culture and informed citizenry. Allowing paid priority access and content discrimination would threaten the free exchange of ideas that takes place online, between people from all around the world, every second of every day. That free exchange is key to what makes the Internet such a powerful force. [Strickler is chief executive and co-founder of Kickstarter]
benton.org/node/192860 | Washington Post
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
WHERE’S GOOGLE IN THE NET NEUTRALITY FIGHT?
[SOURCE: Revere Digital, AUTHOR: Amy Schatz]
Federal regulators have received more than 625,000 comments about a controversial proposal to allow broadband providers to offer fast-lane service on the Internet. None, so far, has been from Google. The search giant and other large tech companies, including Facebook, Amazon, Twitter and eBay, may support net neutrality rules, but they don’t appear to be spending much time or money in Washington fighting for them. That’s a sharp contrast from 2010, when those companies, particularly Google, fought a high-profile lobbying war with telecommunications and cable companies over net neutrality, which is the idea that Internet traffic should be treated equally and not blocked or slowed. The FCC isn’t expected to make a final decision on rules until the end of 2014, so there’s still plenty of time for big tech companies to engage. But their seeming reluctance to get too heavily involved may be a boon for broadband providers like Verizon and Comcast, which invest heavily in lobbyists and interest groups to help get their way in DC. The tech companies signed onto a letter protesting FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s fast-lane net neutrality proposal, but appear to have done relatively little since then. Heavily-regulated Internet providers, by contrast, have been busy commissioning economic studies, reviving “grassroots” advocacy groups, hosting numerous panels around DC and generally building a defense against efforts by net neutrality advocates to push the FCC to impose more regulations on Internet lines. “My worry about net neutrality is: What are you trying to fix? What are you trying to solve?” AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said in early June at a luncheon held next door to the Federal Communications Commission. “I think we ought to be very cautious about tinkering with this thing.” Google spent $15.8 million in 2013 lobbying lawmakers, making it the twelfth biggest spender in DC, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. It was the only Internet company to crack the top 20 in spending, spending slightly less than AT&T and slightly more than Boeing.
benton.org/node/192475 | Revere Digital
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
DISCLOSING INTERCONNECTION AGREEMENTS CREATES ANTICOMPETITIVE RISKS
[SOURCE: American Enterprise Institute, AUTHOR: Daniel Lyons]
[Commentary] The Federal Communications Commission announced that it had begun reviewing the recent interconnection agreements that Netflix signed with Internet service providers Comcast and Verizon. The Commission’s growing interest in the heretofore unregulated interconnection market has prompted some commentators to renew their calls for all interconnection agreements to be filed with the Commission and made publicly available. Greater transparency, they argue, would provide consumers a better understanding of the economics of the Internet ecosystem beyond last-mile broadband networks, and would help the public police potential anticompetitive risks. While transparency is often a laudatory goal, a mandatory public disclosure requirement in this case may ultimately harm the very competition that proponents seek to protect. Even absent any actual anticompetitive effects, the increased antitrust scrutiny invited by price transparency will impose additional costs on the industry, which will ultimately be passed along to consumers in the form of higher prices. [Lyons is an associate professor at Boston College Law School]
benton.org/node/192421 | American Enterprise Institute
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
PRIVACY/SECURITY
IS YOUR ANDROID DEVICE TELLING THE WORLD WHERE YOU'VE BEEN?
[SOURCE: Electronic Frontier Foundation, AUTHOR: Peter Eckersley, Jeremy Gillula]
Do you own an Android device? Is it less than three years old? If so, then when your phone’s screen is off and it’s not connected to a Wi-Fi network, there's a high risk that it is broadcasting your location history to anyone within Wi-Fi range that wants to listen. This location history comes in the form of the names of wireless networks your phone has previously connected to. This data is arguably more dangerous than that leaked in previous location data scandals because it clearly denotes in human language places that you've spent enough time to use the Wi-Fi. In Android we traced this behavior to a feature introduced in Honeycomb (Android 3.1) called Preferred Network Offload (PNO). PNO is supposed to allow phones and tablets to establish and maintain Wi-Fi connections even when they’re in low-power mode (i.e. when the screen is turned off). The goal is to extend battery life and reduce mobile data usage, since Wi-Fi uses less power than cellular data. But for some reason, even though none of the Android phones we tested broadcast the names of networks they knew about when their screens were on, many of the phones running Honeycomb or later (and even one running Gingerbread) broadcast the names of networks they knew about when their screens were turned off.
benton.org/node/192447 | Electronic Frontier Foundation
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
NOW ON YOUR CELLPHONE BILL, SERVICES YOU NEVER WANTED
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Brian Chen]
For years, phone carriers have wanted to find ways to make it easy for mobile customers to buy things and charge them to their phone bills. That has legitimate uses, like buying ringtones and apps, or even making political donations or financial pledges to a nonprofit radio station. But it is easily abused, in ways not always easy to spot: Consumers, for instance, could start getting text messages about sports scores or horoscopes for which they never wanted to sign up. “As with 900 numbers, it’s ripe with potential for abuse, and in some cases that potential has become reality,” said Jan Dawson, an independent telecom analyst for Jackdaw Research. Such practices recently returned to the spotlight when the Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit accusing T-Mobile USA of profiting from “cramming” -- the tacking on of unauthorized charges that appear, often without a coherent explanation, on customers’ bills. The practice of cramming is common on bills for traditional phone lines, but only recently began to appear on bills for mobile phone usage. Regulators say that in the context of cellphones, cramming typically occurs when a user is browsing the web with a smartphone, encounters an advertisement and inadvertently agrees to something. The phone number then subscribes to a text-message service, which delivers texts on topics like celebrity gossip, dating and the weather for a monthly fee that is usually around $9. Despite those consumer protections, some companies still manage to drop in those extra charges on unwitting consumers. Since 2010, the Federal Communications Commission has taken nine anti-cramming enforcement actions against companies and proposed more than $33 million in fines. That is much less than 1 percent of the amount consumers may have lost to cramming charges in the same period.
benton.org/node/192863 | New York Times
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
T-MOBILE’S ALL-CAPS, EXCLAMATION-FILLED RESPONSE TO THE FTC’S BILLING ACCUSATIONS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Brian Fung]
You would think a company that had just been accused of breaking the law would keep a low profile. But if we've learned anything about John Legere, the fiery chief executive of T-Mobile, it's that he doesn't do low-profile. Days after the Federal Trade Commission charged T-Mobile with illegally charging consumers in a practice known as "cramming," Legere is turning his guns away from his usual targets -- the giants of the wireless industry -- and training his sights on Washington instead. "On Tuesday of this week, we all got to see Washington politics and the big carrier lobbyists at their best," Legere wrote in a lengthy, rough-around-the-edges blog post. "While I love our democracy, I hate the way DC works sometimes [sic], and I just could not sit still and let them get away with it." Legere's company has pushed back hard against the FTC's allegations, saying it no longer allows companies that peddle spammy horoscope information or sports scores to bill customers that never signed up for their services. "T-Mobile has in the past and will continue to keep our pledge to bill customers only for what they want and what they have purchased for as long as I am CEO of this company! NO EXCUSES!" Legere wrote.
benton.org/node/192703 | Washington Post | USAToday
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
CONTENT
PARTICIPANT MEDIA
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Michael Cieply]
For the last year Participant Media, an activist entertainment company that delivers movies with a message, has been quietly working with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Knight Foundation and the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism to answer a question vexing those who would use media to change the world. That is, what actually gets people moving? Do grant-supported media projects incite change, or are they simply an expensive way of preaching to the choir? Ultimately, the answers may help determine which projects get financed, which formats are favored and how stories are structured.
benton.org/node/192905 | New York Times
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
OWNERSHIP
AUTHORS WEIGH IN ON AMAZON, HACHETTE DISPUTE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Hayley Tsukayama]
The clash between Amazon.com and publishing giant Hachette has taken a new turn, as hundreds of authors asked readers to write e-mails to Amazon's chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos to protest the web retailer's tough tactics. One letter, spearheaded by author Douglas Preston and signed by nearly 400 authors -- including Stephen King, Pulitzer Prize winner Robert A. Caro and novelist ames Patterson -- takes Amazon to task specifically for not accepting pre-orders on Hachette authors' books, not discounting the prices of many Hachette books and slowing the delivery of many Hachette titles to consumers' doorsteps. "We have made Amazon many millions of dollars and over the years have contributed so much, free of charge, to the company by way of cooperation, joint promotions, reviews and blogs. This is no way to treat a business partner. Nor is it the right way to treat your friends," the authors wrote.
benton.org/node/192714 | Washington Post
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
DIVERSITY
E-SPORTS CANNOT FIGHT SEGREGATION WITH SEGREGATION
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Sam Machkovech]
A sub-reddit dedicated to the video game Hearthstone exploded with discussion. A Finnish e-sports tournament had just been announced, and the Helsinki event, scheduled for July 31, would include a competition based on the Blizzard-produced card-battle game, complete with a grand prize of €1,000 and free travel to the tournament's world finals in November. User Karuta posted the tourney's rules and highlighted a strange stipulation: only men need apply. As people dug in to the tournament's details, they found that the whole affair was divided into male- and female-only categories, and worse, women were invited to fewer competitions. Public outcry came swiftly, and within less than a day, IeSF posted an update that hinted at a reversal of course. "Our top priority is to promote e-sports in the best ways we can," the company posted to its Facebook page. "We believe that listening is important, and we're now collecting your opinions from the social media, and we will update soon." That course has since been fully reversed.ollecting your opinions from the social media, and we will update soon." That course has since been fully reversed.
benton.org/node/192423 | Ars Technica
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
GOVERNMENT AND COMMUNICATIONS
NSA TARGETS TOR ADMINISTRATORS AND PEOPLE SEARCHING FOR PRIVACY TOOLS, REPORTS CLAIM
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: David Meyer]
An investigation by the German broadcasters ARD and WDR has apparently demonstrated the targeting by the National Security Agency of a German student called Sebastian Hahn, who runs a node on the anonymization network Tor. It has also shown that anyone searching for “privacy-enhancing software tools” online may be marked for surveillance. Tor (“The Onion Router”) works by bouncing traffic off a series of servers so that it’s near-impossible to trace who’s browsing what. It’s partly funded by the US Department of State because it’s handy for dissidents in repressive regimes, but Edward Snowden’s leaks already showed in 2013 that the NSA has been targeting Tor because it believes terrorists also use it. Meanwhile, according to an English-language ARD article -- and partly written by members of the Tor project -- the NSA “tracks all connections to a server that hosts part of an anonymous email service at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) in Cambridge, Massachusetts.” What’s more, the broadcasters reported -- again based on the source code -- that the actual contents of emails sent over the Tor network are extracted for scrutiny, not just the emails’ metadata about senders, recipients and timing.
benton.org/node/192441 | GigaOm
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
PRIVACY, CIVIL LIBERTIES AND THE NSA
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Kevin Taglang]
[Commentary] On July 2, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board released a detailed analysis of U.S. surveillance programs. The headline-grabbing conclusion of the research is that a set of National Security Agency programs that collect vast amounts of Internet communications from U.S. companies has proved to be an effective intelligence tool, but that some aspects bordered on unconstitutionality. The board said that the NSA programs need better safeguards for protecting Americans' communications scooped up in the process. One of the goals of the board in writing the report has been to increase transparency about U.S. surveillance. In addition to this effort to explain the program, the board has set forth a series of policy recommendations designed to ensure that the program appropriately balances national security concerns with privacy and civil liberties. As you pack up for July 4 weekend, we thought we’d take a closer look at what the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board is and what it found out about the NSA.
http://benton.org/node/192443
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
IN NSA-INTERCEPTED DATA, THOSE NOT TARGETED FAR OUTNUMBER THE FOREIGNERS WHO ARE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Barton Gellman, Julie Tate, Ashkan Soltani]
Ordinary Internet users, American and non-American alike, far outnumber legally targeted foreigners in the communications intercepted by the National Security Agency from US digital networks, according to a four-month investigation by The Washington Post. Nine of 10 account holders found in a large cache of intercepted conversations, which former NSA contractor Edward Snowden provided in full to The Post, were not the intended surveillance targets but were caught in a net the agency had cast for somebody else. Many of them were Americans. Nearly half of the surveillance files, a strikingly high proportion, contained names, e-mail addresses or other details that the NSA marked as belonging to US citizens or residents. NSA analysts masked, or “minimized,” more than 65,000 such references to protect Americans’ privacy, but The Post found nearly 900 additional e-mail addresses, unmasked in the files, that could be strongly linked to US citizens or US residents. The surveillance files highlight a policy dilemma that has been aired only abstractly in public. There are discoveries of considerable intelligence value in the intercepted messages -- and collateral harm to privacy on a scale that the Obama Administration has not been willing to address. Among the most valuable contents -- which The Post will not describe in detail, to avoid interfering with ongoing operations -- are fresh revelations about a secret overseas nuclear project, double-dealing by an ostensible ally, a military calamity that befell an unfriendly power, and the identities of aggressive intruders into US computer networks.
benton.org/node/192879 | Washington Post | Associated Press | CNNMoney | GigaOm | USAToday
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
CRUNCH TIME FOR NSA REFORM
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Julian Hattem]
It’s crunch time for reining in the National Security Agency. If lawmakers are going to finalize the USA Freedom Act to reform government surveillance in 2014, privacy advocates warn they need to pick up the pace. “I think there’s a lot of pressure on the Judiciary Committee to act on USA Freedom before the August recess,” said Greg Nojeim, senior counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology. “Everyone knows that bills that aren’t yet out of committee by the end of July are really hard to get done because appropriations occupy so much time and attention,” he added. “I wouldn’t want to be a Judiciary Committee staffer responsible for this issue and have Fourth of July vacation plans.” The Senate will return after the July Fourth holiday weekend for four straight weeks of work in Washington before the month-long August recess. After that, government funding and the November elections are likely to take center stage, clouding the outlook for any controversial measures on Capitol Hill.
benton.org/node/192876 | Hill, The
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
RESEARCH
EPIC COMPLAINS TO FTC ABOUT FACEBOOK EMOTION STUDY
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Vindu Goel]
A leading privacy group filed a formal complaint with the Federal Trade Commission over a 2012 study in which Facebook manipulated the news feeds of nearly 700,000 users of the social network to see what effect the changes would have on their emotions. The group, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said Facebook had deceived its users and violated the terms of a 2012 consent decree with the FTC, which is the principal regulatory agency overseeing consumer privacy in the United States. “The company purposefully messed with people’s minds,” the advocacy group wrote in its complaint. “At the time of the experiment, Facebook did not state in the Data Use Policy that user data would be used for research purposes. Facebook also failed to inform users that their personal information would be shared with researchers.”
benton.org/node/192708 | New York Times | USAToday | The Hill
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
THE JOURNAL THAT PUBLISHED FACEBOOK’S PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDY IS RAISING A RED FLAG ABOUT IT
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Brian Fung]
Facebook's newsfeed study isn't just controversial among Internet users and academics, it turns out. Now, even the journal that published Facebook's research says it has reservations about having done so. The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, one of the top scientific journals in the country, said it was publishing an editorial expression of concern regarding Facebook's study. Although Facebook didn't technically break any rules on human-subject research, the journal said, Facebook's research "may have involved practices that were not fully consistent with the principles of obtaining informed consent and allowing participants to opt out." Expressions of concern are a way for scholarly journals to notify readers of potential problems in published research, though PNAS said it did not believe Facebook needed to comply with the paper's human-subject research policies. PNAS added in a statement to the Washington Post that the announcement was aimed at acknowledging concerns about the research and that it does not intend to investigate the study further.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/07/03/the-journal...
More fallout for Facebook: journal cites “concern” over study, privacy group files FTC complaint (GigaOm)
benton.org/node/192716 | Washington Post | GigaOm
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
AGENDA
FCC TO HOLD OPEN COMMISSION MEETING ON JULY 11, 2014
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Public Notice]
The Federal Communications Commission will hold an open meeting on July 11, 2014. The FCC will consider:
A Report and Order to modernize the E-Rate program and expand support for Wi-Fi connectivity for schools and libraries. The R&O seeks to close the Wi-Fi gap, make E-Rate dollars go farther, and deliver faster, simpler and more efficient applications and other processes;
A Report and Order establishing a budget and a methodology for selecting winning applications for the Connect America rural broadband experiments adopted by the Commission in the January Tech Transitions Order; and
A Second Order on Reconsideration and a Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that revisits the Commission’s determinations regarding the captioning of video clips when delivered using Internet protocol, ensuring that individuals with hearing disabilities are able to enjoy the full benefits of broadband technology.
The Commission is waiving the sunshine period prohibition until 11:59 pm on July 7, 2014, permitting presentations with respect to the aforementioned items until that time.
benton.org/node/192471 | Federal Communications Commission | Multichannel News
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
STORIES FROM ABROAD
RUSSIAN LAWMAKERS PASS NEW BILL RESTRICTING INTERNET
[SOURCE: Agence France Presse, AUTHOR: Maria Antonova]
Russia's parliament passed a bill requiring Internet companies to store Russians' personal data inside the country in an apparent move to pressure sites such as Facebook and Twitter into handing over user information. Introducing the bill to parliament, MP Vadim Dengin said "most Russians don't want their data to leave Russia for the United States, where it can be hacked and given to criminals." "Our entire lives are stored over there," he said, adding that companies should build data centres in Russia. The bill would increase pressure on social networking services which do not have offices in Russia and have become a vital resource for anti-government groups. Both Facebook and Twitter refuse to hand over user data to governments.
benton.org/node/192861 | French Press Agency
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
EUROPE AND US TECH
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Mark Scott]
Across Europe, love -- or at least acceptance -- often wins out in the love-hate relationship with American tech companies like Amazon, Facebook and Google. Despite their often vocal criticism of these behemoths, people in the region are some of the most active and loyal users of American social networks, search engines and e-commerce websites. They are often even more hooked on the services than Americans are.
benton.org/node/192897 | New York Times
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top