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One of the Internet’s founding fathers is set this week to revive a heated cybersecurity debate over whether to preserve anonymity and the use of pseudonyms in online chat forums and social networks like Twitter. Vint Cerf, Google’s chief Internet evangelist, is expected to make the case for keeping people’s identity anonymous — particularly on certain Web services — when he delivers the keynote address at the RSA cybersecurity conference.
Tension over the issue has been building for years between free speech advocates and those who say tougher steps are needed to boost cybersecurity on the Internet. “The ability to speak anonymously [online] is critical to the ability to speak freely, to speak on the matters of public policy,” said Harold Feld, senior vice president of consumer interest group Public Knowledge and a former member of the U.S. delegation during the U.N. conference.
Web anonymity battle starts anew
As the government clamps down on alleged privacy violations by mobile applications, Google, Apple and legions of software developers are girding for fines and rules that analysts say threaten to stifle growth.
The Federal Trade Commission, which this month fined Path Inc., a social-networking site, $800,000 for unauthorized collection of user data, is investigating a rising number of mobile apps for privacy violations. California Attorney General Kamala Harris is stepping up scrutiny of app makers, and congressional lawmakers are planning legislation that would require programmers to bolster disclosure and data protection. Developers rely on tools that track users’ whereabouts, surfing habits and buying preferences to pack their apps with ads and features. Yet, with vast amounts of personal data bought and sold over the Web, user privacy is at risk. Therein lies a conundrum: More fines and tighter rules to protect consumers could boost costs for small companies whose apps are fueling demand for mobile advertising, tablets and smartphones.
Google to Apple Gird for FTC-Led Mobile-Privacy Crackdown
President Barack Obama has the chance to make history again, this time by naming the first woman chair of the Federal Communications Commission as well as one to head the Federal Trade Commission.
A woman in either post could go a long way to squelch critiques that Obama's administration looks like a boy’s club. Over the last few weeks, groups like the Women’s Media Center (co-founded by Jane Fonda, Robin Morgan and Gloria Steinem) have turned up the heat on the President, reminding him it was the women’s vote that sent him back to the White House. At the FCC, one frontrunner is commissioner Mignon Clyburn who was sworn in for a second term last year. Other contenders include commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, who joined the FCC last year, and Karen Kornbluh, the ambassador to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. For the FTC spot, most in Washington are betting on Julie Brill, an aggressive consumer advocate.
For the First Time Ever, Women Could Head FTC, FCC
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings sees the company's first foray into original series, House of Cards as more of a long-term investment than a short-term payoff.
Speaking during a Morgan Stanley media and technology investor conference, Hastings cautioned that he doesn't want investors to read too much into House of Cards' performance, noting that it just one small part of Netflix's offerings. "It will be a big part of our press, and it is already, but that doesn't mean it's a big part of the total viewing or why a subscriber joins." He argued the real value of Cards won't be determined until it returns for its second season. "In the beginning, you're really establishing a franchise," he said. "Most of us, there's so many new shows developed, that we wait and see." He did say however, that he was very pleased with the show's early returns, though didn't give any concrete data. "House of Cards has been a great success for us, as we'd hoped." With the critical acclaim that House of Cards has received, Hastings isn't putting additional pressure on some of the other original series that Netflix has on tap for the rest of the year. "We really have a very broad set of demographics within the Netflix service," he said.
Netflix's Hastings Sees 'House of Cards' as Long-Term Investment
The push for a federal online sales tax bill previously pitched the young Internet industry against the old retail sector. But no more.
The tech industry’s passion for opposing the issue has waned. Internet retailers grew up, traditional retail giants now blend their online and brick-and-mortar stores and lawmakers no longer talk about needing to protect e-commerce as if it were a new species. “It’s a legacy issue” for tech, said Gary Shapiro, president and chief executive of the Consumer Electronics Association, which switched positions on the issue last year. The trade association now supports a federal bill, the Marketplace Fairness Act, which would give states the power to require remote retailers to collect sales tax. “The industry is neutral to sympathetic to the cause of the federal bill.” Congress will begin to consider the Marketplace Fairness Act introduced in both the House and Senate this month.
Opposition to online sales tax wanes
Governments spying on each other is nothing new. Nor is corporate spying: The U.S. textile industry began after American industrial spies stole factory plans from 18th century Britain. But Dan McWhorter, managing director of cyber security firm Mandiant, says the scale of China’s state-sponsored theft of data from U.S. companies is unprecedented and difficult for a democratic society to grasp. "There’s such a firm divide between government and corporation, that it’s hard to wrap your head around," says McWhorter. "In a communist government, the government and industry are tied together and they’re hard to distinguish at times."
Mum's the word for U.S. businesses hacked by China
U.S. wireless carriers are working on a new way to deliver voice calls to make their networks more efficient.
While carriers have spent tens of billions of dollars developing and marketing their data networks, wireless voice calls still use technology rolled out more than 10 years ago. Older networks were built for voice traffic with a data pipe running through it, but newer networks are for data only. To maximize efficiency, carriers aim to eliminate the dedicated voice channels needed by older technology and clear the airwaves for the latest standard, called long-term evolution, or LTE. To do this, companies are taking on the multiyear process of converting voice calls into Internet traffic so the same airwaves can be used for voice or data. Replacing traditional voice service with voice over LTE will take time, as complex kinks are worked out, network equipment is installed and, eventually, phones are made with the necessary hardware. VoLTE, as the new technology is known, offers greater efficiency because once-dedicated voice space can also run data when not being used for voice calls, something the current technology doesn't allow.
Wireless Carriers Move to New Technology—for Voice
Europe’s top telecoms regulator has pledged to use European Union treaty powers to force through plans to create a single market for mobile services across the region as part of attempts to drag the industry from “near collapse.”
In a speech to a closed meeting with ministers and telecoms industry chief executives at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Neelie Kroes, Europe’s digital commissioner, will outline an “action plan” to put the region “at the heart of the mobile industry it established and once dominated.” She has identified €27 billion of investment needed to create a modern mobile telecoms market. he plan includes improving operators’ access to the spectrum they need for mobile services, as well as €50 million of funding for research to deliver “5G” mobile technology by 2020. In a strongly worded statement, Kroes will say that Europe’s mobile networks need to be dragged from “today’s near collapse to sustainability”, with plans to push through the creation of a single telecoms market across the region.
‘Action plan’ for unified EU mobile market
In unusually aggressive comments, European telecoms operators have attacked US technology and internet groups over monopolistic practices, as well as the industry regulators for ignoring their call for consolidation.
In speeches at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona, executives from the large regional telecoms groups have criticized groups that use of their networks without contributing to investment, highlighting concerns over competition and privacy. While such complaints are not new, the ferocity of the speeches made by the heads of Europe’s telecom operators highlight the pressure they are under from economic woes, intense competition and mounting investment costs.
Telecom chiefs attack US Internet groups
South Koreans enjoy some of the world's fastest and cheapest data networks, with three companies providing ultra high-speed connections even to the most remote mountain villages. One reason is the 2002 transformation of government-owned monopoly, Korea Telecom, now known as KT Corp., into a private company whose survival is staked on driving future services, ranging from consumer entertainment to industrial factory management. For the past four years, the company has been led by Lee Suk-chae, a 67-year-old former communications minister whose aggressive embrace of market competition belies the nearly three decades he spent in government. Lee Suk-chae talked to the Journal about the difficulties related to the company's transformation and why global telecom operators should drop lucrative practices—such as charging roaming fees to international travelers.
How KT Corp. Ushered in Broadband