CyberTelecom News Weekly
Federal Internet Law and Policy :: An Educational Project
“By 1990 75-80 percent of IBM compatible computers will be sold with OS/2." Bill Gates, founder and CEO of Microsoft (January, 1988)
On January 12, 2012, the Commission adopted the IP Closed Captioning
Order, which adopted rules governing the closed captioning requirements
for the owners, providers, and distributors of video programming
delivered using Internet protocol (“IP”), as well as rules governing the
closed captioning capabilities of certain apparatus on which consumers
view video programming.1 Those rules became effective on April 30, 2012,
except for the rules that require approval by the Office of Management
and Budget (“OMB”).2 The information collection was submitted to OMB for
review under 47 U.S.C. § 3507(d) and was approved by OMB on July 24,
2012.3 The Commission in the IP Closed Captioning Order stated that
these rules will become effective after the Commission publishes a
notice in the Federal Register announcing OMB approval and the relevant
effective date.4 The Commission has published this notice in the Federal
Register, announcing an effective date of today, August 6, 2012.5
Accordingly, the rules that required OMB approval took effect on August
6, 2012.
Tests performed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST) show that a new method for splitting photon beams could overcome a
fundamental physical hurdle in transmitting electronic data. These
results* could lead to commercial systems that can help safeguard the
transfer of sensitive information. The findings confirm that a prototype
device developed with collaborators at Stanford University can double
the amount of quantum information that can be sent readily through
fiber-optic cables, and in theory could lead to an even greater increase
in the rate of this type of transmission.
Conventional fiber-optic systems, in use for decades, transmit data as a
series of light pulses—just a step up from Morse code. Such pulse
streams can be intercepted by third parties undetectably. But the
photons themselves can carry data, encoded in their quantum states.
Because any attempt to intercept that data alters the quantum state,
eavesdroppers can always be detected.
There have been some critical comments recently on the state of U.S.
broadband. Some have claimed that there has been little improvement in
broadband speeds over the past several years; others question whether
there’s a path to next generation capabilities.
The latest quarterly Akamai State of the Internet Report (quick
registration required, or see press release) shows that the average U.S.
broadband speed was up 29% last quarter. The speed of average U.S.
connection now at around 6.7 Mbps, thanks largely to continued
deployment of faster DOCSIS 3.0 cable services. Globally the
Charter Communications joined the TV customer defection festivities
today with an earnings report that shows the cable operator lost 66,000
video subscribers on the quarter. As with Comcast and Time Warner Cable,
those losses were offset by the addition of 29,000 broadband and 6,000
voice subscribers, and the 66,000 was
A Federal Communications Commission-led initiative has launched a
program that will allow U.S. organizations to donate used computers to
low-income people.
Last Friday, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski weighed in on the
appropriate spectrum policy for the country and got it absolutely
correct. The Chairman made clear he still favors clearing spectrum for
auction, where appropriate, while we also explore new sharing ideas that
have been developed. He correctly noted that it’s not
Cell phone usage changes, and new research could affect cell phone
exposure limits, says a report by the Government Accountability Office.
The FCC issued an order designed to reduce operational costs and
facilitate the use of wireless backhaul in rural areas. In particular,
the commission will allow the use of smaller antennas in the 6, 18, and
23 GHz bands and will permit microwave operators to create higher
capacity links by licensing 60 and 80 megahertz channels in
NTIA's Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) is funding
innovative programs across the nation that are working to close the
digital divide. And a number of those projects are targeting a group of
Americans too often left behind by today's fast-moving technology:
seniors. Broadband can improve quality of life for older Americans in
many ways. Online videoconferencing technology can allow seniors to see
grandchildren who live on the other side of the country. Medical
websites can provide easy access to everything from health and wellness
tips to information about illness and disease. Telemedicine and remote
monitoring can enable elderly patients too frail to travel to consult
with doctors at distant hospitals. Social media tools can combat
isolation and even serve as a lifeline to the outside world. What’s
more, at a time when many Americans are working into their retirement
years, Internet job listings and online employment applications – as
well as Web-based training programs and classes - can help seniors
retool for today’s economy. But not enough older Americans are sharing
in the benefits of broadband. NTIA, in collaboration with the Census
Bureau, conducts some of the most extensive survey work on broadband
adoption trends in the U.S. Our most recent published survey, in
October of 2010, found that only 45 percent of U.S. households headed
by someone 65 or older had broadband. That compares with 72 percent of
households headed by someone ages 45 to 64, and 77 percent of
households headed by someone ages 16 to 44. BTOP is helping close this
gap. Roughly 20 digital inclusion projects that receive funding through
the Recovery Act program provide services targeted at seniors in some
capacity
Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the leading cloud platform for
helping enterprises provide secure, high-performing user experiences on
any device, anywhere, today released its First Quarter, 2012 State of
the Internet report. Based on data gathered from the Akamai Intelligent
Platform™, the report provides insight into key global statistics such
as Internet penetration, mobile connection speeds, origins of attack
traffic, and global and regional connection speeds.
A detailed look at people living with disability in the U.S. -- their
demographic profile, technology status, and use of the internet for
health information.
Starting last week there have been a number of sensational headlines
about IPv6 user adoption using adjectives and phrases like, "explodes",
"skyrocketing" and "conquering the world". Nice to hear for sure but
what does that mean to vendors of IPv6 gear or anyone else studying the
market?
In the you can’t make this stuff up category: last week the Senate’s
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation held a hearing on
“Marketplace Fairness: Leveling the Playing Field for Small Businesses,”
but failed to take testimony from a single e-commerce company that
opposes the bill. (See “Wait An E-Minute” below.)
Iran plans to move several of its ministries and state agencies offline
as a way of protecting them behind a secure computer wall from what it
sees as online threats, the Telegraph reported. An Iranian official also
said the measure is the first step in the launch of a long-rumored
domestic intranet system set to start in 18 months, per the Telegraph.
The intelligence service of Syria's embattled regime is engaging in
sophisticated cyber warfare against anti-regime activists. This, say
expert observers, is the new reality of modern warfare.
The Internet Society’s Comments on the U.S. Government Development of
the “Joint Strategic Plan on Intellectual Property Enforcement”
Yesterday we noted that government officials were seeking to suppress
video and images from the raid on Kim Dotcom's home. As a bunch of folks
have been sending in all day, New Zealand's 3NEWS has revealed some of
the footage in a video interspersed with video from the courtroom
hearings and a tour they did a few months ago of the room in which
Dotcom hid. It's interesting to note that, contrary to some reports of
law enforcement having to "break in" to a "safe room," the reality
turned out to
We sometimes hear people say that BitTorrent as a technology is only
good for infringement. We know that's not true, but then people will
point to examples of how frequently it's used for infringement. Of
course, that's meaningless when you look at both the larger picture and
the nature of trends. When new distribution technologies
Twitter creator Jack Dorsey details how his company has had to quickly learn and adapt amidst changing times
A technical outage left millions of Wikipedia users unable to use the
site for a brief stretch this morning. Wikimedia said "networking
issues" were to blame.
Turner Broadcasting confirmed on Monday that it is acquiring the
sports-blogging network Bleacher Report for what some estimate to be
about $175 million — a deal that was first reported by All Things
Digital — to help the Time Warner unit bulk up its sports coverage.
Although it is sometimes seen as a second cousin to its competitor SB
New figures showed a slight decline in overall pay-TV subscribers,
intensifying the debate over whether Netflix and YouTube are causing
viewers to disconnect their cable-TV service.
Speaking after a performance of Mike Daisey's one-man Steve Jobs show,
Steve Wozniak says he foresees nightmares caused by data stored in
remote servers.
The story of the breach of former Gizmodo staffer Mat Honan’s iCloud
account took an interesting turn Sunday with news that the attacker was
able to call Apple and convince a customer service employee that he was
Honan. While hardly the breach of the century, the situation does
highlight a couple hard truths about cloud secu
Google Inc. has agreed to pay a record $22.5 million civil penalty
to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it misrepresented to
users of Apple Inc.’s Safari Internet browser that it would not place
tracking “cookies” or serve targeted ads to those users, violating an
earlier privacy settlement between the company and the FTC.
The settlement is part of the FTC’s ongoing efforts make sure companies live up to the privacy promises they make to consumers,
and is the largest penalty the agency has ever obtained for a
violation of a Commission order. In addition to the civil penalty, the
order also requires Google to disable all the tracking cookies it had
said it would not place on consumers’ computers.
“The record setting penalty in this matter sends a clear message
to all companies under an FTC privacy order,” said Jon Leibowitz,
Chairman of the FTC. “No matter how big or small, all companies must
abide by FTC orders against them and keep their privacy promises to
consumers, or they will end up paying many times what it would have
cost to comply in the first place.”
Google, the developer of the world’s most popular Internet
search engine, generates billions of dollars in revenues annually from
selling online advertising services, including the delivery of targeted
ads online. Cookies are small pieces of computer text that are used
to collect information from computers and can be used to serve
targeted ads to consumers. By placing a tracking cookie on a user’s
computer, an advertising network can collect information about the
user’s web-browsing activities and use that information to serve
online ads targeted to the user’s interests or for other purposes.
In its complaint, the FTC charged that for several months in
2011 and 2012, Google placed a certain advertising tracking cookie on
the computers of Safari users who visited sites within Google’s
DoubleClick advertising network, although Google had previously told
these users they would automatically be opted out of such tracking, as a
result of the default settings of the Safari browser used in Macs,
iPhones and iPads.
According to the FTC’s complaint, Google specifically told
Safari users that because the Safari browser is set by default to block
third-party cookies, as long as users do not change their browser
settings, this setting “effectively accomplishes the same thing as
[opting out of this particular Google advertising tracking cookie].”
In addition, Google represented that it is a member of an industry
group called the Network Advertising Initiative, which requires members
to adhere to its self-regulatory code of conduct, including
disclosure of their data collection and use practices.
Despite these promises, the FTC charged that Google placed
advertising tracking cookies on consumers’ computers, in many cases by
circumventing the Safari browser’s default cookie-blocking setting.
Google exploited an exception to the browser’s default setting to place
a temporary cookie from the DoubleClick domain. Because of the
particular operation of the Safari browser, that initial temporary
cookie opened the door to all cookies from the DoubleClick domain,
including the Google advertising tracking cookie that Google had
represented would be blocked from Safari browsers.
The FTC charged that Google’s misrepresentations violated a
settlement it reached with the agency in October 2011, which barred
Google from – among other things – misrepresenting the extent to which
consumers can exercise control over the collection of their
information. The earlier settlement resolved FTC charges that Google used deceptive tactics and violated its privacy promises when it launched its social network, Google Buzz.
More information about the FTC case can be found at the Tech@FTC blog.
Chairman John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV today commended the Federal Trade
Commission (FTC) for taking action on Google's violation of an earlier
privacy settlement after the company misled consumers and tracked them
online.
Google and the Federal Trade Commission on Thursday announced the
company has agreed to a $22.5 million settlement — the agency’s largest
penalty ever — on charges that Google misrepresented its actions to
users of Apple’s Safari
It was my honor today to be a panelist at a Hill event on “Apps, Ads,
Kids & COPPA: Implications of the FTC’s Additional Proposed
Revisions,” which was co-sponsored by the Family Online Safety Institute
and the Association for Competitive Technology. It was a free-wheeling
discussion, but I prepared some talking points for the event
A California District Court has dismissed with prejudice a class action
lawsuit filed against LinkedIn on behalf of its registered users,
finding the allegations too speculative to sustain a lawsuit. An earlier
Complaint filed by one of the representative Plaintiffs was dismissed
by the Court without prejudice, allowing the Plaintiff to amend the
Complaint and bring the lawsuit again. In this recent decision, the
Court dismissed all of the claims asserted in the Amended Complaint with
prejudice, and
A BITAG member and Internet Service Provider (ISP), Comcast, has
observed large-scale Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) Reflected
Amplification Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. These
attacks are significant and have been observed to result in tens of
gigabits to over one hundred gigabits per second of SNMP traffic sent to
attack targets from multiple broadband networks. These attacks have
been hours long in
China and the U.S. were the two largest sources of Internet-attack
traffic in the first quarter of 2012, increasing to account for 16
percent and 11 percent respectively, according to Akamai Technologies.
President Obama is exploring the option of using his executive authority
to get government agencies and critical infrastructure owners to
implement better controls for protecting their computer networks.
The Fourth Circuit recently joined the Ninth Circuit in concluding that
the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”) does not permit a civil claim
by an employer against a former employee for misappropriating
information that the employee was initially allowed to access. See WEC
Carolina Energy Solutions LLC v. Miller, No. 11-1201,
Inescapably, the debate in the United States about law enforcement’s use
of electronic surveillance is defined in terms of privacy. Whether
discussed by courts, commentators, or legislators, the principal and
often the only justification put forth for regulating the use of a given
technology by the police is that it invades an interest somehow
described as private.
Blizzard has been hacked and account information has been stolen, the
World of Warcraft and Diablo III developer and publisher reports.
Online encyclopaedia Wikipedia goes offline after two cables near one of its main data centres are accidentally cut.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), the son of libertarian Congressman and
presidential candidate Ron Paul, visited the conservative Heritage
Foundation on Thursday to sketch out his agenda for preserving Internet
freedom. In Paul's view, this means opposing warrantless government
snooping of private networks—and also opposing regulations intended to
protect privacy and network neutrality.
2011 was a tumultuous year. Facing massive protests organized in part
through Internet and other forms of technology, three different
governments considered or took the unprecedented step of shutting down
an entire medium of electronic communication. As these media increase in
popularity, new methods of protesting will emerge and will become more
sophisticated and widespread.