Today’s Washington Brief
- A broadly supported email privacy bill with more than 300 cosponsors faces some pushback from law enforcement authorities who say the bill will hamper investigations. House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) proposed changing the Email Privacy Act by requiring companies to give the federal government customer data in an emergency. (Morning Consult)
- The National Cable and Telecommunications Association urged the Federal Communications Commission to consider the targeted blocking of programming a violation of good-faith bargaining requirements when used as a negotiating tactic. NCTA said the practice harms customers because the blocking has nothing to do with the programming itself. (Broadcasting & Cable)
- The Office of Personnel Management launched a website that allows users to check if their personal information was compromised during this year’s data breach that affected 22 million people. The website is expected to speed the notification process while providing additional support to those already notified. (The Hill)
Today’s Business Brief
- The Department of Homeland Security has been launching mock cyberattacks on U.S. businesses and entities to help evaluate cybersecurity infrastructure. The National Cybersecurity Assessment and Technical Services program offers “risk and vulnerability” assessments and “cyber hygiene” evaluations for firms that request them, at no cost to the firms. (Krebs on Security)
- Airbnb began sharing data on its New York City activity, such as information on host listings and statistics on earnings. It’s the first time the company has shared citywide data to show how hosts use the platform. (The New York Times)
- Spotify surpassed Pandora Internet Radio as the most popular internet music streaming service in terms of revenue, users and downloads. (Business Insider)
Today’s Chart Review
Business Insider
Mark Your Calendars (All Times Eastern)
Wednesday
Senate Judiciary Committee holds hearing on protecting trade secrets @ 10 a.m.
Thursday
House Energy and Commerce Committee holds hearing to examine broadcast ownership in 21st century @ 10:15 a.m.
Friday
No events scheduled.
General
Spotify just unseated Pandora to become the most popular music streaming app in the world
Nathan McAlone, Business Insider
Spotify has knocked Pandora off the throne to become the most popular music streaming in the world, according to a new report from app analytics firm App Annie. Spotify has come out on top in terms of revenue, active users, and downloads.
USDA tackles FITARA
Zach Noble, FCW
The Agriculture Department is among the first agencies to release a Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act implementation plan. USDA’s plan, made public in late November, as agencies gear up to meet the Office of Management and Budget’s Dec. 31 deadline, puts the emphasis on making the agency CIO the “single point of accountability” for IT work across the entire agency, but it also makes heavy note of delegation opportunities, a must for an agency with a workforce more than 80,000 strong.
Clinton: Internet for all U.S. households by 2020
Curt Mills, Washington Examiner
Hillary Clinton laid out the goal Sunday of having internet access in all American households, by the end of her first term as president. “By 2020, I want 100 percent of American households to have access to quality, affordable high-speed internet, no matter where they live,” Clinton said to 1100 attendees at the New Hampshire Jefferson-Jackson dinner.
Here’s the Secret Order the FBI Slapped on an Internet Entrepreneur
Robert Hackett, Fortune
Nicholas Merrill, founder of Calyx Internet Access, an Internet Service Provider, became the first person to challenge the overarching subpoena known as a National Security Letter when he filed a lawsuit against the order a decade ago. On Monday, he received permission to disclose the contents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s inquiry.
S&P 500 Futures Little Changed as Investors Await Yellen Speech
Alex Longley, Bloomberg News
U.S. stock index futures were little changed as investors awaited a speech from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen for indications of the trajectory of interest rates, while speculation increases that the European Central Bank will take additional steps to boost inflation when it meets tomorrow. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures expiring in December added 0.1 percent to 2,103 at 10:56 a.m. in London, after stocks yesterday opened the month with a 1.1 percent rally to close at their highest level since Nov. 3.
Intellectual Property
Copyright Register: IT outage shows why agency must modernize
Whitney Blair Wyckoff, FedScoop
U.S. Register of Copyrights Maria Pallante still grimaces at the mention of a major IT outage that struck her agency this summer. What started as routine data center maintenance shuttered critical Library of Congress IT systems — including those at the Copyright Office — for nine days.
Telecommunications, Broadcast & Cable
NCTA to FCC: Blocking Online Content Is Bad Faith
John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable
The National Cable & Telecommunications Association told the FCC Tuesday that it should consider broadcasters’ blocking of broadband customers’ access to online programming “in order to extract a higher price for the carriage of broadcast signals” a “circumstance” that constitutes a violation of good faith bargaining requirements. NCTA was filing initial comments to the FCC on its congressionally mandated rulemaking on what it should include in the “totality of circumstances” test for good faith negotiation violations.
Padden: Auction Simulation Should Comfort Broadcasters
John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable
Preston Padden, formerly executive director of the Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition, blogged Tuesday (Dec. 1) about a new broadcast incentive auction simulation from auction expert Peter Cramton that finds only 1-3 stations would be repacked in the duplex gap at a 114 MHz national spectrum clearing target. He said that should help comfort broadcasters concerned about being relocated into the gap after the auction.
Verizon Opens Up its Network for Connected Devices
Stacey Higginbotham, Fortune
Verizon, the first operator to launch a 4G network in the U.S., is now the first to launch a dedicated network for the Internet of things on its LTE network. The cellular carrier is using a standard called Cat-1 LTE that limits upload speeds to 10 Mbps, lowers the modem costs, and cuts power demands, so cheap, connected devices that rely on batteries can operate on the cellular network instead of only on Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.
ATVA Presents FCC With Good Faith Wish List
John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable
The American Television Alliance has told the FCC that, as part of its review of good faith retransmission consent negotiations, it should prohibit blocking of Internet content, forced bundling and blackouts of “marquee” events. That came in comments filed at the FCC Tuesday on its congressionally mandated review of the factors it should consider in its “totality of circumstances” test for determining whether the negotiations are being conducted in good faith.
Mobile & Social
Airbnb Releases Trove of New York City Home-Sharing Data
Mike Isaac, The New York Times
On Tuesday, the short-term home-rental company began sharing data on the ways that people open their homes to guests in the five boroughs. The data, an anonymized compendium of the thousands of hosts in New York, includes statistics like host earnings, the types of listings and how often people rent out their homes.
Uber Seems To Be Getting Its Butt Kicked In China
Brian Solomon, Forbes
Uber and its Chinese rival Didi Kuaidi are locked in a billion-dollar battle to control the world’s largest ride-hailing market. And Uber’s losing.
Data & Privacy
Electronic Privacy Bill Stymied By Pressure From Law Enforcement
Amir Nasr, Morning Consult
Federal law enforcement agencies are pushing back on a widely supported movement to update the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act, stalling a popular House bill in the process. Most members agree that the current law is outdated, as is reflected by a whopping 305 co-sponsors on the House bill.
OPM launches self-check website for hack victims
Cory Bennett, The Hill
In a Tuesday blog post, OPM Acting Director Beth Cobert said the agency was mailing out 800,000 notification letters each day and on pace to complete the entire process within the next two weeks. The new website, which the agency is calling a “verification center,” is intended to help speed the notification process even further, while helping those who already know they were affected.
Internal Revenue Service Used Stingray Device in Non-IRS Investigations
Dmitry Filipoff, Morning Consult
The Internal Revenue Service used its cell-phone tracking device, known as a stingray, in four non-IRS investigations, Commissioner John Koskinen revealed in a letter to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). The agency used its only cell-site simulator to aid in a Drug Enforcement Administration investigation that tracked one mobile device, and it also used the simulator for three state cases that involved tracking six cell phones, according to the letter dated Nov. 25.
HP and Microsoft Partner Again on Cloud
Barb Darrow, Fortune
In a totally unsurprising bit of news, Hewlett Packard Enterprise said Tuesday that it is working with long-time-partner-sometimes-rival Microsoft to provide customers with integrated hybrid cloud deployments using (surprise) HP hardware and Microsoft Azure public cloud. That means there is, yes, a new appliance called the “Hyper-Converged 250 for Microsoft CPS Standard” which runs the latest version of the Windows Server operating system; HPE OneView for Microsoft System Center, which is management software for administrators; and Windows Azure Pack.
Cybersecurity
DHS Giving Firms Free Penetration Tests
Brian Krebs, Krebs on Security
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been quietly launching stealthy cyber attacks against a range of private U.S. companies — mostly banks and energy firms. These digital intrusion attempts, commissioned in advance by the private sector targets themselves, are part of a little-known program at DHS designed to help “critical infrastructure” companies shore up their computer and network defenses against real-world adversaries.
How Corporate America keeps huge hacks secret
Jose Pagliery, CNN
You could live near — or work at — a major facility that has been hacked repeatedly and investigated by the federal government. But you’d never know.
A Message from Pandora: Over 1,600 voters were asked about streaming music, and the results are in. They show overwhelmingly that voters have used streaming services, they believe legal access to music should be widely available, and free-to-the-listener music services are important to consumers. At Pandora, we believe access to music is essential. Every day we connect 80 million active listeners to 150 thousand artists — creating an engine paying over almost $1.5 billion in royalties to rightsholders. Learn more here.
Opinions, Editorials & Perspectives
Regulating the Wireless Economy is Senseless and Dangerous
Hon. Christopher D. Coursen, Morning Consult
To not only preserve and expand upon this empowering resource, but also to spread its reach to those either still offline, or with only basic internet availability, government must do its part to promote growth technologies. Yet in an ongoing policy debate – government regulation of the internet, so-called net neutrality, a misnomer at best – the government is doing exactly the opposite.
Can DIUx help DoD unlock innovation roadblocks with Silicon Valley?
Gary Gysin, Morning Consult
The Department of Defense’s (DoD) new innovation “outpost” facility – the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx) – is generating both high hopes and some skepticism in Silicon Valley. Many in the tech community, myself included, are cautiously optimistic about this new partnership.
Freedom of the press is bad news for net neutrality
Fred B. Campbell, Jr., The Hill
When the FCC adopted net neutrality rules earlier this year, Chairman Tom Wheeler assured skeptics that rules regulating broadband Internet service providers (ISPs) “do not regulate Internet content.” This theory rests on a seriously flawed (though all too common) understanding of the First Amendment.
Do We Need A New Judicial Fast Lane To Combat Trade Secret Theft?
Eric Goldman, Forbes
The bill would create a new federal trade secret law that would dramatically change trade secret practice throughout the country. Given the importance of trade secrets to most businesses and our economy generally, even minor changes to trade secret law have potentially outsized consequences.
The major challenges facing America’s ambitious new cybersecurity plan
Eric Geller, The Daily Dot
The United States government has a plan to shore up its cyber defenses and prevent more devastating hacks, but setting that plan in motion will require extracting more funding from a hostile Congress, boosting young Americans’ interest in the IT field, and dramatically transforming how an estimated 2.7 million federal civilian employees think about cybersecurity. Care to bet on its success?
Pandora CEO: This is why giving people access to on-demand music that’s ‘free all the time’ is a problem
Brian McAndrews, Business Insider
Years ago, if anyone could have walked into a record store, legally taken every record home for free, and listened to the exact songs they wanted for as long as they chose, the music industry model would have completely broken down. But that is exactly the situation the music industry faces today.
A Message from Pandora: Voters love streaming music, believe legal access to music should be widely available, and free-to-the-listener music services are important to consumers. Emboldened by these polling results, Pandora will continue on our relentless mission to unlock music by enabling nearly limitless connections between listeners and the music they love. Learn more here.
Research Reports, Issue Briefs & Case Studies
Measuring the Information Society Report
International Telecommunications Union
This annual report presents a global overview of the latest developments in information and communication technologies (ICTs), based on internationally comparable data and agreed methodologies. It aims to stimulate the ICT policy debate in ITU Member States by providing an objective assessment of countries’ performance in the field of ICT and by highlighting areas that need further improvement