National Journal

Gigi Sohn one of thought leaders laying the groundwork for future policy change

Throughout her 30 years in telecommunications and technology policy, Gigi Sohn has worn many hats—a telecom lawyer, a progressive advocate, a top aide at the Federal Communications Commission, an academic. But if there’s one thread uniting the career of a woman widely viewed as the godmother of progressive tech policy in Washington, it’s her ability to bridge the vast chasms between industry, the advocacy community, and the federal government. “I spend a lot of time building bridges between industry and public interests—and also between the public-interest groups themselves,” Sohn said.

Privacy Groups Disturbed by California Governor’s Data-Dividend Plan

Gov Gavin Newsom (D-CA) may have thought he was throwing privacy advocates a bone when he proposed the creation of a “data dividend” during his state of the state address. The notion that Facebook, Google, and other tech platforms should return a portion of the tremendous wealth that they’ve accumulated through the exploitation of their users’ personal data is a popular one.

How Republicans Flip-Flopped on Government-Run Internet

Government-run Internet service is an abomination, a waste of taxpayer funds, and an assault on private industry. And if states want to ban it, the federal government should get out of their way.

That's what congressional Republicans are saying now, but just a few years ago, top GOP lawmakers were not only on board with municipal Internet -- they were actively working to protect it.

Some Republicans argue the debate is not about the virtue of municipal Internet, but rather the question of a federal board intervening against state laws. States should be able to overturn local officials' decisions, but the FCC shouldn't overturn the states' decisions, they argue.

But it's hard to ignore the most significant change since the Republicans sponsored the municipal broadband bills a few years ago: The Obama Administration has taken a position on the issue.

Cable Companies: Google Threatens Net Neutrality, Not Us

The real threat to online freedom is from Internet giants like Google and Netflix, according to major cable companies. Those sites could block access to popular content and extort tolls out of Internet service providers, the cable companies warn.

The argument is the backward version of the usual fight over network neutrality. In a filing to the Federal Communications Commission, Time Warner Cable claimed that the controversy over Internet providers potentially charging websites for access to special "fast lanes" is a "red herring." The real danger, the cable company claimed, is that Google or Netflix could demand payments from Internet providers.

The National Cable and Telecommunications Association wrote that "a relatively concentrated group of large [Web companies] -- such as Google, Netflix, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook -- have enormous and growing power over consumers' ability to access the content of their choice on the Internet."

The NTCA argued that Google, which handles about 68 percent of all Internet searches, has far more control over access to other sites than any individual broadband provider does. "It makes no sense to focus exclusively on Internet access providers and ignore conduct by [websites] that threatens similar harms," the cable lobbying group wrote.

Sen Rockefeller Wants to Revolutionize How You Watch TV

Sen Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) is getting ready to settle into retirement. But before he does, he'd like to upend the entire television industry.

His goal is to boost online video services like Netflix to allow them to become full-fledged competitors to cable giants like Comcast. Although his ambitious gambit is unlikely to pay off in the final few months of his 30-year career, it could lay the groundwork for future congressional action that could change how Americans watch TV.

Why The NSA Keeps Tracking People Even After They're Dead

You may be dead, but the United States government won't take you off its terrorist roster.

That's according to newly leaked internal guidelines from 2013 that reveal intimate details regarding the government's process for determining whether an individual should be designated as a possible terrorist suspect. So broad are their criteria that an individual is able to be placed onto a watch list -- and kept there -- even if he or she is acquitted of a terrorism-related crime.

Additionally, the guidelines note that a deceased person's name may stay on the list because such an identity could be used as an alias by a suspected terrorist.

FCC Blames Net Neutrality Glitch On Budget Woes

The Federal Communications Commission is blaming a lack of funding from Congress after its website crashed due to an onslaught of outraged comments on network neutrality.

An agency spokesman said Congress has failed to give the agency enough money to upgrade its information-technology systems. The official said additional funding could help prevent similar backlogs and ensure that the public is able to share its views with the agency. Republicans seem more inclined, however, to move the agency's budget in the opposite direction.

In Net Neutrality Push, Democrats Aim to Make the Internet a Utility

Several lawmakers want to apply utility-style regulations to Internet service providers. Sen Ed Markey (D-MA) collected signatures for a letter urging the Federal Communications Commission to regulate the Internet like the telephone system. Sens Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Al Franken (D-MN), and Sen Bernie Sanders (I-VT) have signed on.

The lawmakers have planned a press conference with Internet advocacy groups. In the letter, the senators argue that stronger authority is necessary to enact strong network neutrality rules to prevent broadband providers such as Comcast from manipulating Internet traffic to favor giant corporations.

"Broadband is a more advanced technology than phone service, but in the 21st century, it performs the same essential function," the senators write. "Consumers and businesses cannot live without this vital connection to each other and to the world around them. Accordingly, it would be appropriate for the FCC to reclassify broadband to reflect the vital role the Internet plays in carrying our most important information and our greatest ideas."

Snowden Undermines Presidential Panel’s Defense of NSA Spying

Just when the National Security Agency looked as though it had finally scored a victory for its maligned surveillance programs, Edward Snowden again crashed the party.

The newest leak, reported by The Washington Post, claims that the vast majority of accounts scooped up in a foreign-intelligence program are not those of actual overseas targets but ordinary Internet users whose communications with those targets are incidentally collected. While revealing on its face, Snowden's latest revelation also arrived just days after the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, an independent watchdog agency, deemed spying under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act legal and effective.

Whether intentional or not, the timely Post article -- the culmination of a four-month investigation of 160,000 email and instant-message conversations -- serves in part as a rebuke to the privacy board's conclusions, civil-liberties groups say, and calls into question the completeness of its review, which stands in stark contrast to the board's critical review of the spying on domestic phone records under Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act.

"There definitely seem to be discrepancies" between the reports, said Liza Goitein, codirector of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice. "It appears that, in the Snowden documents [American] information is collected deliberately in far broader circumstances than what the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board discussed."

A New Cybersecurity Bill Could Give the NSA Even More Data

Privacy groups are sounding the alarm that a new Senate cybersecurity bill could give the National Security Agency access to even more personal information of Americans.

The Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act would create a "gaping loophole in existing privacy law," the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and dozens of other privacy groups wrote in a letter to senators.

"Instead of reining in NSA surveillance, the bill would facilitate a vast flow of private communications data to the NSA," many of the same privacy groups warned in a second letter to lawmakers.

The goal of the bill, authored by Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein and ranking member Sen Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), is to allow the government and private sector to share more information about attacks on computer networks. Privacy groups are worried that the legislation could encourage a company such as Google to turn over vast batches of emails or other private data to the government.

A Bill to Ban Internet 'Fast Lanes' Won't Pass. But Here's Why It Still Matters.

[Commentary] A Democratic bill to ban "fast lanes" on the Internet isn't going to become law. Republicans have long opposed network neutrality regulations, and as long as they control the House, they'll block legislation that would restrict the business choices of Internet service providers.

But the Online Competition and Consumer Choice Act, introduced by Sen Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Rep Doris Matsui (D-CA), isn't really about changing the law. It's about sending a message to the Federal Communications Commission.

"We put forth the bill to put increased pressure on the FCC to ban paid-prioritization agreements," an aide to a bill supporter explained. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler expected to take criticism from Republicans, who are skeptical of the government telling broadband providers how to manage their networks. But the growing opposition to his proposal from Democrats could leave the FCC chief in a tenuous political position. Even the White House has offered little support, noting that the FCC is an "independent agency."

Chairman Wheeler needs the votes of both Democrats on the five-member commission to enact his proposed regulations. But those commissioners, Jessica Rosenworcel and Mignon Clyburn, might not be eager to help the chairman if he's all alone on the issue.

The Online Competition and Consumer Choice Act, which also has the support of Sen Al Franken and Reps Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Anna Eshoo (D-CA), would instruct the FCC to enact rules banning paid prioritization within 90 days of the bill becoming law. The bill would also call for rules banning Internet providers from favoring content they own or are affiliated with.

Safer Roads or Stronger Wi-Fi?

Talking cars will one day be mandatory, but in the meantime, some think they're holding back the airwaves for much-needed Wi-Fi.

As Internet access grows, more and more frequency is needed to support Wi-Fi devices. Some of that frequency -- the 5.9 GHz band -- has been set aside for talking cars.

Vehicle-to-vehicle communication, which the Transportation Department says will one day be mandatory, allows cars to alert one another to their presence and to warn drivers if a wreck is imminent. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates talking cars could eliminate 80 percent of wrecks not involving driver impairment.

For now, though, the 5.9 GHz band is spectrum that can't be used for Wi-Fi devices. Some see a middle ground in which the frequency is still used for talking cars but shared for some Wi-Fi purposes.

Sorry, You Can’t Really Escape The Nsa

The world's largest Internet companies and thousands of average Internet users are trying to hide their private information from government snooping. The goal is to set up technological barriers to the National Security Agency's sweeping surveillance programs.

Rather than waiting for Congress to rein in the agency, many people want to take privacy into their own hands. But the truth is, efforts to improve online encryption and security can't totally thwart the NSA. Joseph Lorenzo Hall, the chief technologist for the Center for Democracy and Technology, said the idea of becoming "NSA-proof" is "just silly."

"If they want it, they can get it," he said of the NSA's expert spies. The agency can hack or bypass many security measures if it is determined enough, Hall said. And it doesn't matter how heavily encrypted an email is in transit if the NSA just forces the email provider to turn the message over.

While the NSA collects some of its data by surreptitiously tapping into communications, much of the surveillance is done through court orders to Internet and phone companies.

Christopher Soghoian, the principal technologist for the American Civil Liberties Union, said tech companies such as Google could hamstring the NSA if they just stopped collecting so much information about their users. If a company doesn't have information on a person, there's nothing to turn over to the government.

Judge Doubts NSA Program Is Constitutional -- But Upholds It Anyway

A federal judge in Idaho upheld the National Security Agency's controversial phone surveillance program. But Judge B. Lynn Winmill seemed to invite the Supreme Court to overturn his decision.

He suggested that the program, which collects data on millions of US phone calls, likely violates the Fourth Amendment's prohibition of unreasonable searches and seizures.

Judge Winmill upheld the program because he concluded that his hands were tied by current Supreme Court precedent. He pointed to the Supreme Court's 1979 decision in Smith v. Maryland, which held that people don't expect privacy in the phone numbers they dial.

Security Insiders: Cyberspying Indictments Will Not Stop China From Hacking US Businesses

The high-profile US indictments against five Chinese military officers will not encourage China to stop hacking American businesses to steal valuable trade secrets, virtually all of National Journal's National Security Insiders said.

It was the first time the US brought a criminal case against a foreign government for cyberspying, but 91.5 percent of NJ's pool of security experts downplayed the move, calling the charges "simply silly" and "an empty gesture."

"China will continue to pursue its interests in acquiring access to US secrets at any cost," one Insider said. China will meet the indictments, another Insider added, "with a big yawn (and lots of self-serving rhetoric) and continue business as usual." The legal action might instead encourage China to try harder to avoid detection, Insiders said. "The door to the bank vault is still open."

The real solution, one Insider said, "is to stop complaining and start developing robust widespread encryption to protect everyone from China and the NSA." One Insider said China "won't stop until the US finds an effective sanctions mechanism -- and we don't have that yet." A slim 8.5 percent minority said the cyberespionage indictments might make an impact on China. "It will infuriate them, but it will also underscore to them the potential costs associated with what they have assumed, up until now, is risk-free (and potentially very profitable) behavior," one Insider said.

Why the FCC Is Being So Vague About Net Neutrality

[Commentary] Federal regulators are trying to leave themselves plenty of power to oversee the Internet -- they're just not willing to get too specific about what they plan to do with it.

The Federal Communications Commission is moving ahead with a network neutrality proposal, but no one knows exactly what business practices it would ban. And for the FCC, that's all part of the strategy. The commission wants a vague standard to allow Internet companies to experiment with new business models, while giving the agency authority to step in when it sees abuses.

A senior FCC official argued that "putting rigid rules in place" would not let the Internet "evolve in a natural way." But the official added that "the government has to be in a position to oversee the Internet and intervene if it needs to."

Vague rules could allow future FCC chairmen (especially Republicans) to be lax on enforcement, letting Internet providers get away with a host of abuses. The next administration could essentially ignore net neutrality if the regulations don't specify which particular business practices are illegal.

Paper Medical Records Are Vanishing Into The Cloud

Scores of filing cabinets containing thousands of patient medical records are disappearing into the cloud.

Use of electronic health records systems in doctors' offices has doubled in recent years, according to a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In 2012, 72 percent of office-based physicians reported using electronic health records, up from 35 percent in 2007, the CDC says. The report finds that adoption of electronic health records was higher among younger physicians compared with older physicians, among primary-care physicians rather than specialty doctors, and among larger practices than smaller.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology is helping guide implementation of the Hitech Act reforms. Led by Karen DeSalvo, the office is currently navigating the process of getting different electronic health systems to talk to each other -- a process known as interoperability.

China Hits Back Over Hacking Charges

The Obama Administration's decision to bring criminal charges against members of the Chinese military is already showing signs of straining the US relationship with China.

Shortly after the Justice Department accused five Chinese officers of hacking US companies, China announced that it is withdrawing from a joint cybersecurity working group.

The US and China launched the working group to try to reach agreements over the use of cyber espionage. Qin Gang, a spokesman for the Chinese government, said China will announce more retaliations "as the situation evolves."

According to the indictments, the five men were members of a hacking group that stole trade secrets from major US companies including Westinghouse, United States Steel, and Alcoa.

Net Neutrality's Death Could Spark Populist Revolt

[Commentary] In the Gilded Age, wrenching economic and technological change hardened life for the vast majority of Americans while an elite few prospered.

Innovators like John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie and Cornelius Vanderbilt disrupted old industries, creating news ones, and cemented their fortunes via government-approved monopolies. The most pernicious of these were railroad trusts.

In our times, wrenching economic and technological change hardens life for the vast majority of Americans while an elite few prosper. Innovators like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg disrupt old industries, create news ones and … We know how the Gilded Age ended -- in a populist uprising against monopolies, sparked by muckraking journalists and harnessed by a trust-busting president named Teddy Roosevelt.

Who will be our era's TR? Well, a leader needs a cause. A better question might be, what will be the modern-day trust -- a force so destructive and distant and deeply engrained that a sleepy public is stirred to revolt?

If history is a guide, our generation's Standard Oil, the populists' boogeyman, may be Comcast, Verizon and/or AT&T -- the sprawling Internet providers who, like Rockefeller and his railroad co-conspirators, could monopolize the price and quality of indispensable goods. Yes, network neutrality could be the issue that inspires a Tech Age political revolution.

Mozilla Has a Plan to Save Network Neutrality

Mozilla is urging the Federal Communications Commission to enact new rules to bar Internet service providers from charging websites for faster service.

In a filing with the FCC, the nonprofit foundation that makes the Firefox Web browser outlined a new legal path to enact tough network-neutrality regulations. Chris Riley, a senior policy engineer for Mozilla, said the group's proposal is "grounded in a modern understanding of technology and markets" and would "help ensure that the Internet continues to be an innovative and open platform."

The filing introduces a new angle to the debate over regulation of Internet access, but it's unclear how interested the FCC will be in Mozilla's proposal. The FCC would classify Internet access as a Title II telecommunications service but only for the relationship between websites and ISPs, not the relationship between consumers and ISPs, the group said. T

he proposal would allow the FCC to bar ISPs from charging websites for fast lanes while still using the current light regulatory regime for other Internet issues that affect consumers, the group said. Mozilla argued that its proposal is not "reclassification" because the FCC has never explicitly defined the relationship between ISPs and Web companies.

"With our proposal, the FCC would be able to shift its attention away from authority questions once and for all, and focus instead on adopting clear rules prohibiting blocking and discrimination online," Riley wrote.

House to Advance Bill to End Mass NSA Surveillance

A bill that would effectively end one of the National Security Agency's most controversial spy programs is finally getting its day in congressional court.

The House Judiciary Committee will hold a markup of an amended version of the USA Freedom Act, a surprising and sudden move that would essentially nullify the government's ability to collect bulk metadata of Americans' phone records. The maneuver may also be a counter to plans the House Intelligence Committee has to push forward a competing bill that privacy advocates say would not go far enough to curb the government's sweeping surveillance programs.

The Freedom Act is sponsored by Rep Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI), the one-time mastermind behind the post-9/11 Patriot Act, from which both the Obama and Bush Administrations have derived much of the legal authority for their surveillance programs.

Rep Sensenbrenner has vocally condemned NSA spying since Edward Snowden's leaks surfaced last June. The bill has long been supported by privacy and civil-liberties groups who view it as the best legislative reform package in Congress.