A bipartisan group of lawmakers would require the government to end the “secret law” that oversees the government’s monitoring of Americans’ telephone and Internet data, according to legislation introduced Tuesday. The bill would require the attorney general to declassify any “substantive legal interpretations” of what the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) “says the law means,” according to a news release. The legislation follows recent newspaper reports that published an order by that court that gave the National Security Agency authority to collect phone metadata from millions of Verizon subscribers (CD June 7 p1).

Despite its near-ubiquity, Wi-Fi has a long way to go, whether it’s increasing speed, reliability, IPv6 capability or capacity for multiple devices, said executives from Cisco, Arris and CableLabs on a Tuesday NCTA convention panel. Providers must work with the FCC to free up spectrum, must enable IPv6 for their consumers, and must look to new software and hardware solutions to improve speed, efficiency and reliability, they said.

Mobile privacy stakeholders debated the remaining outstanding issues in the voluntary code of conduct that would require apps to disclose to users via short-form notice what information they collect from users and what entities they share that information with, in a meeting Tuesday. The remaining issues include requirements of the short-form user interfaces and whether apps need to list every data element listed in the code. Tuesday’s meeting had been the last scheduled stakeholder meeting in the process facilitated by the NTIA, but prior to the meeting, NTIA Director of Privacy Initiatives John Verdi scheduled a final meeting for July 9.

FCC rules for the 20 MHz of spectrum dedicated to public safety for FirstNet should be as close to commercial rules as possible, Verizon said in reply comments filed at the FCC. The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association and NTCA said in joint comments the rules should impose construction deadlines on FirstNet to guarantee that the network is built out to serve rural areas as well as cities. Commenters responded to a March NPRM (http://bit.ly/13y16mp) on technical rules for a public safety broadband network (PSBN).

Clyburn said increasing access to high-speed Internet is especially important in poorer areas, because quick Internet can compensate for a lack of other resources. “Broadband is a great equalizer for a whole host of people,” said Clyburn. She provided an example of a school in a low-income area using the Internet to connect students with a foreign language teacher for instruction the school could otherwise not afford. “At the click of mouse you can transport yourself to another country,” said Clyburn.

Second-screen engagement is becoming an important part of the marketing for TV programs, said Bravo Executive Vice President Lisa Hsia on a Cable Show panel on the growing trend of social TV. SocialGuide CEO Sean Casey said 80 percent of Twitter traffic about TV comes from mobile devices, and while only 1-2 percent of people watch live sports, it accounts for 50 percent of the conversation about TV on Twitter. Executives from Bravo, Starz, Facebook, SocialGuide and Zeebox also said second screens can entice more viewers to watch and have a shared experience.

Comcast, expanding its move of cable functions to the cloud, is revamping set-top boxes to simplify user interfaces (UI) that can handle traditional cable and newer Internet Protocol video on an array of IP-connected devices. CEO Brian Roberts used an appearance at the NCTA’s show Tuesday to download from the cable system on a screen in the Washington Convention Center an Ultra HD video in 4K at 3.2 Gbps. Cable programming executives later said a plethora of ways video can be seen makes measuring audiences for advertisers more difficult, which a Nielsen executive said it’s moving to address.

Cable subscribers who use TV Everywhere are no more likely to cut the cord than regular cable subscribers, said Brett Sappington, Parks Associates’ director-research, on a Tuesday panel at the NCTA show. TV Everywhere users have the same income level as average cable subscribers and the same gender, but they're slightly more likely to own more Internet-capable devices and slightly younger, he said.

Programs such as Prism and the laws which authorize them “potentially endanger” Europeans’ rights to privacy and data protection, European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy Tonio Borg told the European Parliament Tuesday. The Prism case, as reported by the media, is also likely to boost concerns about the use of personal data online and in the cloud, he said. Most European Parliament political party representatives who spoke at the session were fuming, but several, like Borg, urged lawmakers not to jeopardize the special relationship with the U.S.

The FCC approved 3-0 an order revamping the Video Relay Service program. In addition to reducing the rates of compensation to various sized providers, interoperability provisions in the order give users the power to more easily choose providers and equipment. The order also creates a “neutral” video communication service provider that will give consumers access to a “standalone” VRS communications assistant provider of their choice.