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Election monitors and ordinary voters can document and transmit reports of possible voting irregularities via a new mobile app built by the left-leaning tech firm Revolution Messaging and connected to the voter file maintained by the political-data firm Catalist.
The Election Protection app is available to anyone, and isn't explicitly partisan, but its likely audience will be Democratic activists who volunteer as election monitors. New voter-ID laws in several states, including key battlegrounds such as Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, have raised concerns about possible attempts at voter suppression and intimidation, as well as the issue of voters dropped in statewide purges of election lists. The Election Protection app includes a complaint form that directs reports to the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which runs a nationwide toll-free hotline on Election Day to review voting problems. The app has a click-to-call function for those with "urgent issues."
Election App Targets Voter Suppression Fears
Google Sites led the U.S. explicit core search market in September with 66.7 percent market share (up 0.3 percentage points), followed by Microsoft Sites with 15.9 percent and Yahoo! Sites with 12.2 percent. Ask Network accounted for 3.5 percent of explicit core searches (up 0.3 percentage points), followed by AOL, Inc. with 1.8 percent (up 0.1 percentage points). More than 16.3 billion explicit core searches were conducted in September, with Google Sites ranking first with 10.9 billion. Microsoft Sites ranked second with 2.6 billion searches, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 2 billion, Ask Network with 565 million (up 3 percent) and AOL, Inc. with 287 million.
September 2012 U.S. Search Engine Rankings
A study released by the Government Accountability Office suggests that the government could do more to protect consumer privacy when it comes to mobile device location data.
The report, which was requested by Sen Al Franken (D-MN), concludes wireless companies are not fully explaining how they use location data culled from mobile phones. Industry self-regulation practices, the report contends, are not strong enough to provide consumers with enough information about how data are collected and shared with third-party companies. “Mobile industry companies we examined have inconsistently implemented these practices,” the report said, adding that in many cases disclosure policies are not enough to give users a way to provide “informed consent.” The report recommends that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration work with stakeholders to develop more specific standards, timeframes and performance measures for policies on mobile location data. It also suggests that the Federal Trade Commission consider issuing guidance for wireless firms on what “appropriate actions” they must take to protect these data.
GAO report: Wireless consumers don’t know how location data are shared GAO (read the report) New Government Report Calls for Rules on Mobile Tracking (AdWeek) GAO Report Dings Location-Tracking Privacy Policies (National Journal) Report calls for tougher rules to protect cellphone location data (The Hill)
The iPhone 5 and any phone running iOS 6 not only by default tracks users for advertising purposes, but also makes it difficult to opt out.
After Apple told developers to stop tracking users with the UDID system, basically eliminating this privacy breach completely, it has implemented a new targeting system. It's called IFA and is "more effective than ever" multiple mobile advertising executives told Business Insider's Jim Edwards. Apsalar, a mobile advertising company compares it to a "persistent cookie," that gives more accurate user-habits than before. The privacy world says the new system isn't as tricky as the old one, which wouldn't let users opt out at all. But Apple kind of negates that by making it so complicated to turn the tracking off.
Your iPhone Is Tracking You Again
Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) told Federal Communications Commission member Aji Pai hat he is misreading a spectrum auction law Congress passed earlier this year.
"Contrary to your assertion, the legislation specifically gave the FCC the discretion to create guard bands out of spectrum that is relinquished by the broadcasters, without any requirement to auction such guard bands," she wrote in a letter to the FCC commissioner. Rep Eshoo, the ranking member of the Communications and Technology subcommittee, and other Democrats successfully fought to include a provision that empowers the FCC to set aside some of the reclaimed spectrum for "unlicensed use." Unlicensed spectrum, which can be used by any company for free, powers technologies such as Wi-Fi, garage door openers and remote controls. The FCC voted last month to begin accepting comments on proposed rules for the auctions. The proposal would set aside unlicensed spectrum blocks in-between broadcast and mobile broadband frequencies. Commissioner Pai supported the decision to move ahead with the auction proposal, but questioned the decision to reserve more unlicensed spectrum. Rep Eshoo argued that lawmakers meant to make clear that the FCC has the authority to promote unlicensed spectrum.
Rep Eshoo says FCC's Pai wrong on congressional intent for auctions
After taking in record levels of political spending in 2012, the television industry's advertising revenues are expected to drop in 2013, according to the latest forecast from media agency Magna Global.
Magna says that the "hangover" that usually accompanies the year following an election/Olympic year will be stronger than usual for television, with revenue down 1.4% to $63 billion, Magna says. In the last non-political year, 2011, revenue grew a modest 1.3%. But the elections and Olympics will make TV a winner in 2012, with revenues up 9%. Magna estimates that the 2012 election cycle will generate more than $2.7 billion of political advertising, up 30.4% from $2.1 billion in2010. Much of the political spending is on local TV, especially in the battleground states.
After Political Windfall, TV Spending to Fall in '13 Record Political Spend Rescues Soft Market (TVNewsCheck)
The Parents Television Council has created a PSA campaign, 4 Every Girl, which it says is meant to combat the sexualization of girls by the media and a spokeswoman for the group says that ION, one of the nation's largest TV station groups, is on board to carry the spots. In addition to the PSA, PTC has a dedicated Web site.
PTC Launches PSA on Sexualization of Young Girls
Cisco Systems accused Huawei of misstating facts concerning their 2003 copyright infringement case and released segments from what it said was a previously sealed document.
Huawei, the world's second-largest maker of routers, has repeatedly said Cisco's claims were unjustified as the Chinese company had received the disputed source code form a third party. Cisco said it was now releasing parts of an expert's report in a blog by Mark Chandler, general counsel at Cisco, "so the world could learn what really happened." In the segments released it said that "the exactness of the comments and spacing not only indicate that Huawei has access to the Cisco code but that the Cisco code was electronically copied and inserted into (Huawei's code)."
Cisco says Huawei misstated facts in 2003 copyright case
Britain's parliamentary intelligence and security watchdog is scrutinizing Chinese telecoms giant Huawei as concerns mount on both sides of the Atlantic over the potential security threat stemming from the firm's access to communication infrastructure. Huawei is well established in Britain, and it has a partnership with the country's largest telecoms operator, BT Group PLC, to upgrade networks that stretches back to 2005. The company was also backed by Prime Minister David Cameron last month when Cameron met Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei - who was a technician in the People's Liberation Army some 30 years ago - to welcome a $2 billion investment by the company in Britain.
Britain scrutinizes Huawei's telecoms infrastructure role
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit overturned a pretrial sales ban against Samsung's Galaxy Nexus smartphone, dealing a setback to Apple in its battle against Google’s increasingly popular mobile software. The ruling is not expected to have an outsized impact on the smartphone market, as the Nexus is an aging product in Samsung's lineup. Apple's stock closed down nearly 2 percent at $628.10. However, the court's reasoning could make it much harder for companies that sue over patents get competitors' products pulled from the market, said Colleen Chien, a professor at Santa Clara Law school in Silicon Valley.
US court clears Samsung phone, hands Apple setback Ban on Samsung's Galaxy Nexus overturned by U.S. appeals court (IDG News Service)