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The Federal Communications Commission clarified its customer proprietary network information (CPNI) policies in response to changes in technology and market practices in recent years. The Declaratory Ruling rests on a simple and fundamentally fair principle: when a telecommunications carrier collects CPNI using its control of its customers’ mobile devices, and the carrier or its designee has access to or control over the information, the carrier is responsible for safeguarding that information.
Specifically, the Declaratory Ruling makes clear that when mobile carriers use their control of customers’ devices to collect information about customers’ use of the network, including using preinstalled apps, and the carrier or its designee has access to or control over the information, carriers are required to protect that information in the same way they are required to protect CPNI on the network. This sensitive information can include phone numbers that a customer has called and received calls from, the durations of calls, and the phone’s location at the beginning and end of each call. Carriers are allowed to collect this information and to use it to improve their networks and for customer support. Carriers’ collection of this information can benefit consumers by enabling a carrier to detect a weak signal, a dropped call, or trouble with particular phone models. But if carriers collect CPNI in this manner, today’s ruling makes clear that they must protect it. The Declaratory Ruling does not impose any requirements on non-carrier, third-party developers of applications that consumers may install on their own. The ruling also does not adopt or propose any new rules regarding how carriers may use CPNI or how they must protect it.
FCC Acts to Protect Private Consumer Information on Wireless Devices FCC (Order)
[Commentary] The revelation of the National Security Agency's collecting all our telephone metadata has supposedly sparked a "national conversation" -- a great debate taking on all the thorny issues surrounding privacy vs. security. Sadly, though, the "national conversation" has for the most part been shallow, often bordering on stupid.
That's because nearly everybody has retreated to their respective camps, refusing to recognize the validity of opposed arguments or the fact that this there is no easy solution to the problem of how we should go about strengthening our security while also, to the extent possible, protecting liberty and privacy. It's also because so much of the "conversation" has taken place on Twitter, where conversations, and certainly debates, should never take place, because they are engineered to be superficial. (Twitter's great for linking to stuff and for issuing pithy one-liners; it's absolutely useless for conversation.) In defending longstanding worldviews, rather than honestly addressing the issue, people are talking past each other.
Media is ruining the NSA debate
The Obama Administration for more than two years permitted the National Security Agency to continue collecting vast amounts of records detailing the e-mail and Internet usage of Americans, according to secret documents obtained by the Guardian.
The documents indicate that under the program, launched in 2001, a federal judge sitting on the secret surveillance panel called the FISA court would approve a bulk collection order for internet metadata "every 90 days." A senior administration official confirmed the program, stating that it ended in 2011. The collection of these records began under the Bush administration's wide-ranging warrantless surveillance program, collectively known by the NSA codename Stellar Wind. According to a top-secret draft report by the NSA's inspector general – published for the first time today by the Guardian – the agency began "collection of bulk internet metadata" involving "communications with at least one communicant outside the United States or for which no communicant was known to be a citizen of the United States." Eventually, the NSA gained authority to "analyze communications metadata associated with United States persons and persons believed to be in the United States", according to a 2007 Justice Department memo, which is marked secret.
NSA collected US e-mail records in bulk for more than two years under President Obama
A review of top-secret NSA documents suggests that the surveillance agency still collects and sifts through large quantities of Americans' online data – despite the Obama administration's insistence that the program that began under Bush ended in 2011.
Documents indicate that the amount of internet metadata harvested, viewed, processed and overseen by the Special Source Operations (SSO) directorate inside the NSA is extensive. While there is no reference to any specific program currently collecting purely domestic internet metadata in bulk, it is clear that the agency collects and analyzes significant amounts of data from US communications systems in the course of monitoring foreign targets.
How the NSA is still harvesting your online data
[Commentary] Our challenge is to use what spectrum we have more efficiently. The single most effective thing we can do to meet the escalating demand for commercial spectrum is rethink the way the federal government uses spectrum.
We need a policy built on carrots, not sticks. We need to develop a series of incentives to serve as the catalyst for freeing more federal spectrum for commercial use. Across the board, we need to find ways to reward federal authorities for efficient use of their spectrum. They could be straightforward and financial -- under which a certain portion of the revenue from the commercial auction of their previously held spectrum would be reserved for the federal entity releasing the spectrum. They could also involve revenue from leasing for shared access during a period of transition to cleared rights. As part of this effort, we also should develop a valuation of all spectrum used by federal authorities, in order to provide a consistent way to reward efficiency. In short, we will create more commercial wireless opportunity and make smarter use of a scarce resource if federal authorities see benefit in commercial reallocation -- and not just loss.
A federal wireless policy built on carrots, not sticks
Verizon Wireless proclaimed its roll-out of 4G LTE is "substantially complete" two and half years after it began, announcing the high-speed mobile data network is available in 500 U.S. markets.
The carrier has led the way in providing widespread 4G coverage. But it is struggling to consistently provide data speeds as fast as on AT&T’s younger and less congested network. Verizon now is turning to improving its 4G service to handle consumers' growing appetite for mobile data. It also has begun to test audio and video calling on the more robust network. In places such as Alaska, Verizon has a 4G network but no 3G network. While Verizon customers can browse the web using the 4G network, they must use the towers of other carriers to make phone calls. By next year, it hopes to let devices tap into 4G towers across the country to make audio and video phone calls. The company said 95% of the U.S. population has access to 4G, up from 90% eight months ago.
Verizon Wireless brings 4G LTE to more cities, looks to LTE-A next
Ahead of its launch of an online radio service Apple circulated terms to independent record labels last week, many of them more generous to the music companies than what rival Pandora Media currently pays.
Apple intends to pay royalties to labels based on a blend of how many times listeners hear their songs and how much advertising Apple sells, according to the terms. During iTunes Radio’s first year, Apple will pay a label 0.13 cents each time a song is played, as well as 15% of net advertising revenue, proportionate to a given label’s share of the music played on iTunes. In the second year, that bumps up to 0.14 cents per listen, plus 19% of ad revenue. That compares to the 0.12 cents Pandora pays labels per listen on its free service. Apple is also offering music publishers more than twice as much in royalties than Pandora does.
Apple Spells Out iTunes Radio Terms
The number of U.S. news outlets employing ombudsmen has never been very large, and about 14 of the positions have been eliminated since the onset of the recession in 2008. As embattled newspapers have shrunk their staffs, the ombudsman has been a tempting target. After all, you have to cover City Hall and the cops.
So what do news organizations do that bothers, irritates and upsets people? False balance is one issue. Other issues include accuracy -- "they want to hold the paper's feet to the fire," fairness and using anonymous sources unfairly. Readers also are apt to ask both why the paper didn't cover something and why it's covering something so much.
Media need internal oversight more than ever
The fate of several of the USA's most well-known newspapers could be irrevocably altered in coming weeks as publishers adopt restructuring moves designed to stretch their shelf life. Facing diminishing ad revenues and declining readership, large newspaper companies are cutting cost, eliminating or selling assets and overhauling management.
Future of major newspapers about to change
Chet Kanojia, founder and CEO of Aereo, believes that cable and satellite TV program bundling will eventually end, whether Aereo succeeds or fails in the marketplace.
Kanojia, who emigrated from India in 1999 and ran two companies (one was sold to Microsoft) that involved cable TV research, maintained that TV “had to migrate to the Internet. Other than cable TV employees … no one likes their incumbent cable [or satellite] provider. Bandwidth is everywhere and increasing … [and online] provides opportunities to create and get programming to consumers.” He noted that online is “the future is where you will buy or sell content. The cost of content production … is low and creators can sell to consumers. The artificial packaging [of cable TV bundles] has to go away.” It was Kanojia’s contention that “ultimately cable can’t continue to bundle and increase prices 8 percent compounded per year to provide HD broadcasts and record for over $100 a month.”
Aereo CEO Sees End To Cable TV Bundling