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Some of America's biggest social media and tech companies have been denying in recent days that they were aware of the National Security Agency's recently-exposed "PRISM" and telephone monitoring programs. But these denials obscure a larger truth: The government's massive data collection and surveillance system was largely built not by professional spies or Washington bureaucrats but by Silicon Valley and private defense contractors.
So says Michael V. Hayden, the retired Air Force general who as director of the NSA from 1999 to 2006 was a primary mover behind the agency's rebirth from Cold War dinosaur into a post-9/11 terror-detection leviathan with sometimes frightening technical and legal powers. After many false starts, that transformation was achieved largely by drafting private-sector companies that had far more technical know-how than did the NSA, and contracting with them to set up and administer the technical aspects of these surveillance programs, Hayden said. "There isn't a phone or computer at Fort Meade [NSA headquarters] that the government owns" today, he says.
Silicon Valley is More Involved in National Security Than You Think
Fast, high-quality mobile network performance along with continual innovation and expansion of digital service offerings are the keys for network providers to attract new customers and strengthen customer loyalty, according to Accenture’s global “Mobile Web Watch 2013: The New Persuaders” report.
Mobile Internet speed was the “top differentiator” cited by survey respondents when evaluating alternative communications service providers (CSPs): 97% said speed was most important, and 78% said there was room for improvement. Nearly two-thirds (63%) “said they would pay additional monthly fees for mobile Internet service that would be 10 times faster than their current connection, indicating that providers’ investments in high-speed data networks, such as 4G, could reap benefits,” according to Accenture. That said, consumers’ willingness to pay for faster mobile Internet service varies between emerging and mature markets: 76% of respondents in emerging markets said they would be willing to pay an additional monthly fee, and that number rose to as high as 83% in Brazil and Russia. That compares to 57% in mature markets, except those in Italy (71%) and Finland (70%).
Accenture: Network Speed is Top Mobile Differentiator
[Commentary] Everywhere one looks, Google is doing remarkable things. From being a one-product company that tapped a stream of wealth with paid internet search, Google is emerging as the dominant consumer technology company of the early 21st century, along with Amazon.
Fred Wilson, a leading New York venture capitalist, accuses it of trying to control the internet, “like Microsoft tried with personal computing ... Who will stop Google?” My answer is: nobody, or not easily. Indeed, the best comparison for Google seems to me not Microsoft in the 1980s but General Electric in the late 19th century – the age of electrification. Like GE, Google is a multifaceted industrial enterprise riding a wave of technology with an uncanny ability not only to invent far-reaching products but also to produce them commercially. GE had many rivals, yet its combination of inventiveness and commercial acumen marked it out from the pack, setting it up to exploit the technology Edison had pioneered for the next century.
Google is the General Electric of the 21st century
SoftBank of Japan agreed to increase its takeover bid for Sprint Nextel to $21.6 billion, seeking to block a rival bid by Dish Network.
Under the revised terms of the complex transaction, SoftBank agreed to shift over about $1.5 billion earmarked for Sprint itself to the company’s shareholders instead. Existing investors can now sell their shares at $7.65 apiece, up nearly 5 percent from the first offer. All told, the new offer is valued at about $7.48 a share, up almost 19 percent from the original bid. SoftBank would own about 78 percent of Sprint if the deal is approved. SoftBank reiterated that it intended to invest $1.9 billion in Sprint if its deal closed, in addition to the $3.1 billion it already invested into the company.
Sprint added that it had ended sales talks with Dish.
SoftBank Raises Its Bid for Sprint to $21.6 Billion SoftBank Raises Offer for Sprint to $21.6 Billion (WSJ) SoftBank’s New Bid Gives Shareholders More Money, But New Sprint Would Have Less Cash (WSJ – less cash) SoftBank raises offer for Sprint Nextel to $21.6bn (FT)
[Commentary] Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Obama emerged from their "shirt-sleeve summit" on the weekend touting new cooperation on climate change and North Korea. The big exception to this new era of good feeling? China's cyberattacks against U.S. private and government targets, on which Mr. Xi gave no ground.
U.S. officials say Mr. Xi refused even to acknowledge Beijing's responsibility and insisted that China is the main victim of cyber spying. The U.S. strategy seems to be to ask China to join a global cyber arms-control regime when China is the world's major promoter and beneficiary of cyber warfare. Parchment promises rarely work in world affairs, but they have no chance in this case until China pays a price for its thievery. This may mean sanctions against Chinese firms and individuals that benefit from cyber theft, as well as against military officials who practice it. But even those steps probably won't matter unless the Chinese begin to see that their own military and business assets are vulnerable to cyberattack. Arms control won't stop China's cyber theft. The fear of counter cyber warfare might.
China's Cyber Stonewall
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto signed into law a far-reaching overhaul of the telecommunications and broadcast industries that aims to curb the market power of companies such as América Móvil in order to increase competition and investment in the sector.
The changes create a new regulatory body, Ifetel, which will have expanded powers, including the ability to apply more restrictive regulations on dominant competitors and even force them to sell assets. In signing the overhaul in the constitution, President Peña Nieto set the clock running for the drawing up and approval of secondary legislation, which Congress has six months to complete. The scope and spirit of the constitutional changes, which seek to give Mexicans access to better and less-costly telecommunications services and raise competitiveness in Mexico, should be reflected in the secondary laws, President Peña Nieto said.
Mexican Telecom Overhaul Becomes Law
Bing has a new friend: Apple. Apple said Bing is displacing Google as the default source for searches spoken into the Siri voice assistant for iPhone and iPad.
That means starting with the next version of the iOS software, released to consumers in the fall, people who ask Siri for something will get answers from Bing. The inclusion of Bing results in Siri are a boost to Microsoft's Web-search engine, which trails far behind search leader Google. Microsoft's share of U.S. Web searches in April was 17.3%, according to comScore data, while Google's share was 66.5%. Google's dominance of Web search is higher in many countries outside the US.
With Siri’s next iteration, Google search has very clearly been pushed to the side. And that’s worth noting. Because while Siri might not be widely used to search the Web today, it likely will be soon. The speech-recognition and natural-language technology that underlies Siri is the future of search. Indeed, Google itself is on record saying as much. If voice is the future of search, and Bing becomes Siri’s go-to search engine come fall, what does that mean for Google and its place in iOS? What happens when Google is no longer the middleman for all those search results it currently monetizes on iOS? There’s far too little information available currently to really say. But these are questions worth asking.
Apple's Siri Boots Google for Bing as Search Engine What Does a Bing-Powered Siri Mean for Google? (Wall Street Journal – analysis)
At a Women in Cable Telecommunications luncheon celebrating Signature Spirit Accolades for community service, Mignon Clyburn said being named by the President to be acting chairwoman of the Federal Communications Commission was her highest professional honor, but added that her audience would not be surprised to learn she felt that being the first woman "ratcheted up the pressure just a little bit."
As did walking the ground floor of the FCC and seeing all those portraits of the former chairmen. "As you walk down the hallway, you start to detect a pattern." She said women had made progress on the road to equality, "but we still have a lot of work to do." She said the FCC has been working to expand opportunities for women both internally and in the industry. Internally, she said, female attorneys outnumber the men, while 50% of engineers at the FCC are women. She said the FCC is also working to remove barriers to market entry for women and minorities.
FCC’s Clyburn Says Being First Female Chair 'Racheted Up Pressure'
A group of Senate Democrats demanded that Nickelodeon, children’s cable TV channel, stop airing commercials for unhealthy food and beverage.
The lawmakers said Nickelodeon could help address the nation’s childhood obesity epidemic by barring the advertisement of junk food. Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) sent a letter to Nickelodeon President Cyma Zarghami and its parent company, Viacom. “As a leading multi-media entertainment destination for children and adolescents, Nickelodeon has a special opportunity — and responsibility — to help address our nation’s childhood obesity epidemic,” the senators wrote. “We ask that you implement a clear policy to guide the marketing of food to children on Nickelodeon’s various media platforms.” The senators cited a Center for Disease Control and Prevention report that said childhood obesity has doubled among children and tripled among adolescents in the last 30 years. They said Nickelodeon could help the federal government save more than $140 billion in healthcare spending related to childhood obesity by taking similar action that the Walt Disney Corp. did last year.
Democrats call on Nickelodeon to stop airing junk food ads
A Q&A with Digital Promise CEO Karen Cator.
To say the political climate in Washington, D.C., isn’t conducive to getting things done these days would be an understatement. That’s what makes Karen Cator’s accomplishments in her nearly four years as director of educational technology for the U.S. Department of Education (ED) all the more impressive. A new national ed-tech plan. Coordination with the Federal Communications Commission on a national broadband plan. The development of an online Learning Registry with open digital content that teachers can use in their classrooms. The Connected Educator project, which explores how educators can learn from each other through online communities of practice—resulting in the first annual “Connected Educator Month” last August.
“I feel really good about the work we were able to do within the context of government,” she said. Cator left the department earlier this year to become the new chief executive officer of Digital Promise, a nonprofit organization that supports ed-tech innovation.
ED’s former ed-tech chief discusses new role