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[Commentary] Until about a decade ago the office phone was the symbol of white-collar work. It was the most important thing on any desk: every photograph of every man in power would invariably show him speaking urgently into one. But now these clumping phones sit largely silent, their huge receivers left slumbering in their cradles. Only the prime minister has an excuse for continuing to use this outdated piece of kit. If he wants to have a top-secret conversation with President Barack Obama, an underground copper cable is a better bet than a microwave. Anyone within range and with a couple of hundred dollars or spyware would be able to hear him talking into a mobile. For the rest of us the landline has little remaining purpose. The saddest thing is what the decline has done to the atmosphere in offices. There are no noisy phones giving their galvanizing rings, creating buzz and urgency. Sadder still, I no longer hear my colleagues arguing with their spouses and builders: most dirty linen is now washed away from desks. Once upon a time I found these fractious calls annoying. But now the door into the private lives of my work mates has closed, I wish I could open it again.
End of the line for the landline
Lobbyists for Internet and technology companies don't expect Congress to pass legislation protecting online privacy any time soon.
"I don't anticipate [comprehensive privacy legislation] getting done this year," said Michael Beckerman, CEO of the Internet Association, a new lobbying group that represents industry giants including Facebook, Google and Amazon. "It's not a front-burner issue right now," another technology lobbyist explained. Despite repeated calls, including from President Barack Obama, for online privacy legislation, Congress has been unable to unite around any bill that would set baseline requirements for how companies must handle their customers' personal information. Many technology companies compile troves of data on their customers, allowing for more customized services and more precisely targeted ads. The rise of smartphones has enabled companies to track users' locations and provide them with more useful information.
Internet, tech firms not too worried about privacy legislation
The Watson supercomputer is graduating from its medical residency and is being offered commercially to doctors and health insurance companies, IBM said.
IBM, the health insurer WellPoint, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center announced two Watson-based applications — one to help assess treatments for lung cancer and one to help manage health insurance decisions and claims. Both applications take advantage of the speed, huge database and language skill the computer demonstrated in defeating the best human "Jeopardy!" players on television two years ago. Armonk-based IBM said Watson has improved its performance by 240 percent since the "Jeopardy!" win.
Watson's medical expertise offered commercially
A Cairo court ordered the Egyptian government to block access to YouTube for 30 days for carrying an anti-Islam film that caused deadly riots across the world. Judge Hassouna Tawfiq ordered YouTube blocked for carrying the film, which he described as “offensive to Islam and the Prophet (Muhammad).”
He made the ruling in the Egyptian capital where the first protests against the film erupted last September before spreading to more than 20 countries, killing more than 50 people. The ruling however can be appealed, and based on precedent, might not be enforced. A spokeswoman for YouTube’s parent company, Google, said in a statement that the firm had “received nothing from the judge or government related to this matter.”
Egypt court orders YouTube blocked for a month in case related to anti-Islam film
Verizon Wireless is reviewing, rating and recommending Android and iPhone apps to its customers.
What’s interesting about Verizon’s approach is it isn’t making its recommendations based on how entertaining, useful or fun a particular app is. Instead a team of Verizon engineers is looking at each app’s impact on the phone’s battery life, its drain on a customer’s data plan and how loosely it plays with security and customer privacy. Basically, Verizon is compiling a series of regularly updated recommendation lists. The first is a list of 20 apps available either for Android or iOS that Verizon claims deliver a “best in class” experience on smartphones and tablets. As you might expect, Verizon isn’t being entirely objective in its choices, but it never claimed to be. One of the apps is even Verizon’s own AppLuvr software, which recommends other apps based on what’s already installed on smartphones.
Which apps will drain your battery and data plan? Verizon’s got a list
[Commentary] A source close to the House Majority Whip’s office tells us that Susan Crawford will be the next chair of the Federal Communications Commission. At least, he said, once we say it, it’ll be true. Oh, who are we kidding? It was Rep Frank Underwood who told us, so it must be true. Or it will be true, right? Obviously, the ramifications of the 2012 election are still being felt; here’s a look at leadership in Congress and key federal agencies as the dust settles.
Source: Susan Crawford Is Next FCC Chair
The Department of Justice has reached a settlement with Holtzbrinck Publishers LLC, which does business as Macmillan, and will continue to litigate against Apple for conspiring with Macmillan and four of the other largest U.S. book publishers to raise e-book prices to consumers.
The proposed settlement was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. If approved by the court, the settlement will resolve the department's competitive concerns involving Macmillan. The department's Antitrust Division previously settled its claims against four book publishers -- Hachette Book Group Inc., HarperCollins Publishers L.L.C., Penguin Group (USA) Inc. and Simon & Schuster Inc. Under the proposed settlement agreement, Macmillan will immediately lift restrictions it has imposed on discounting and other promotions by e-book retailers and will be prohibited until December 2014 from entering into new agreements with similar restrictions. The proposed settlement agreement also will impose a strong antitrust compliance program on Macmillan, including requirements that it provide advance notification to the department of any e-book ventures it plans to undertake jointly with other publishers and regularly report to the department on any communications it has with other publishers. Also for five years, Macmillan will be forbidden from agreeing to any kind of most favored nation (MFN) provision that could undermine the effectiveness of the settlement.
Justice Department Reaches Settlement with MacMillan in E-Book Case Macmillan settles with DOJ; Apple last company standing in e-book battle (The Hill) Citing Potential Damages, Macmillan Settles With U.S. on E-Book Pricing (New York Times)
A hacker who goes by the name of Guccifer has reportedly compromised the email accounts of at least six people close to George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush and has distributed some of the private emails and photographs online.
Among the photographs allegedly posted online by the hacker were two showing President George W. Bush painting, and one with him and Ralph Lauren. President George H.W. Bush also appears in some of the photos, including a recent one of him in the hospital and another with President Clinton. Some of the pictures came from the email accounts of Dorothy Bush Koch, George W. Bush's sister. But it wasn't just photos that were exposed. Information from emails were also shared, including a list from October that included the home addresses and phone numbers for dozens of Bush family relatives.
George W. Bush's private photos hacked, put online Email hacker reveals Bush family photos, addresses (Reuters) Bush family privacy shattered after e-mails, photos exposed online (ars technica) Secret Service Probes Hack of Bush Emails (WSJ)
News of the Bush family breach comes as British courts announced that 144 people -- including celebrities such as Hugh Grant and Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, — would receive damages as a result of the phone-hacking scandal that ultimately ended the run of the British tabloid, News of the World. As the Guardian reported, 17 individuals demanded public apologies from the defunct newspaper’s publisher, News International.
Most people won’t be targets of cyber crime in the same way that high-profile celebrities are, but everyone’s lingering digital footprints provide rich caches of personal information to those who want it. Cyber criminals are happiest when information is easy to get, so while consumers may not have much agency when it comes to protecting themselves against company-wide attacks, they can make it more difficult for hackers looking to smash and grab attacks on personal accounts. Using password protection on phones and voicemail is a good first step, as is taking the admittedly painful step of not reusing your e-mail password for other accounts.
Bush, celebrity hacks raise profile of privacy concerns
The leaders of the House Intelligence Committee plan to re-introduce on Feb 13 a controversial cybersecurity bill that has faced pushback from the White House.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-MI) and ranking member Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD) said that they plan to re-introduce the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) next week during a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. The bill is aimed at improving information-sharing about cyber threats between government and industry so cyberattacks can be thwarted in real time. The bill that Reps Rogers and Ruppersberger plan to introduce next week will be identical to the version of CISPA that passed the House last spring. The White House issued a veto threat against CISPA before it was taken up on the House floor last year. It's unclear whether the White House would issue a similar threat this time around due to its concern over a lack of privacy protections in the bill.
House panel to reintroduce controversial cyber bill, setting up White House fight