The wider availability of services on a fast-growing connected-device base “has led to a vastly improved viewing experience for many in the online video sector, encouraging consumers to pay for premium content,” said a Futuresource Consulting report Tuesday. It described a “perfect storm” in which Netflix has been able to capitalize “on the growing trend to access content via IP.” Netflix has used its low-priced subscription VOD business model to increase its global customer base to 60 million, of which 40 million are in the U.S., it said. Futuresource estimates the global total will reach at least 80 million by the end of 2016, it said. This would make Netflix “approximately twice as big” as any other pay-TV content provider except HBO, which is available in 114 million homes worldwide, it said. For Netflix, “international expansion has been a huge success, with most countries it has launched in exceeding expectations,” it said, citing the recent Netflix debut in Australia. “However, uptake in Germany and France has been slower, with some resistance to the service, whilst Japan could be its toughest and potentially most expensive launch yet, with language, culture and content in Japan all very different to Netflix's previous experiences of international launches.” Netflix representatives didn’t comment.
A coalition of civil rights and privacy organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union and TechFreedom, sent a letter to House leadership Monday in support of an amendment to the Intelligence Authorization Act co-sponsored by Reps. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, and Jim Himes, D-Conn., that would remove Section 306 from the proposed bill, a TechFreedom news release said. Section 306 “would allow executive agencies to withhold from the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) any information related to covert action, which is defined in the National Security Act of 1947 as ‘any activity or activities of the United States Government to influence political, economic, or military conditions abroad, where it is intended that the role of the United States Government will not be apparent or acknowledged publicly,’” the release said. “PCLOB can’t be expected to do its job if executive agencies are given broad license to withhold key information,” said TechFreedom Policy Fellow Mark Potkewitz. “The Section 306 carve-out for ‘covert’ action is so broad that agencies could claim this exception to preclude PCLOB access to information on virtually anything -- including the intrusive surveillance programs that are in dire need of more oversight,” Potkewitz said. “Rep. Gabbard’s amendment is crucial for the continued oversight of surveillance programs.”
U.S. Chief Information Officer Tony Scott ordered federal agencies to begin a 30-day “cybersecurity sprint” to review and improve their cybersecurity policies, the White House said Friday. Obama administration officials said the effort to strengthen federal cyber defenses was unrelated to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) data breach announced earlier this month (see 1506050042). But the White House noted in a fact sheet distributed to reporters that “recent events underscore the need to accelerate the Administration’s cyber strategy and confront” hackers. The White House has generally had a “laser-like focus” on cybersecurity issues but "it’s hard not to see how this 30-day sprint isn’t connected to the OPM data breach,” said Norma Krayem, co-leader of Squire Patton’s cybersecurity practice. The OPM data breach is to be the subject of two House briefings Tuesday and a House Homeland Security Cybersecurity Subcommittee hearing next week. Tuesdays’ OPM briefings include a 10 a.m. House Oversight Committee hearing in 2154 Rayburn and a 1 p.m. closed all-House briefing that’s to include Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson. A “Cybersecurity Sprint Team” is leading a 30-day review of all federal agencies’ cybersecurity policies as part of the cyber policy push, with members of the team coming from the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, OMB’s E-Gov Cyber and National Security Unit and the National Security Council Cybersecurity Directorate, the White House said. The U.S. CIO’s office will recommend a federal civilian cybersecurity strategy based on the review team’s findings and will issue action plans to further address critical cyber issues, the White House said. The U.S. CIO’s office is requiring federal agencies to use DHS-provided cyberthreat indicators on their networks and report any malicious activity, the White House said. Federal agencies will also be required to immediately patch critical cyber vulnerabilities, accelerate adoption of multifactor authentication and tighten which network users have “privileged” access.
The Direct Marketing Association is disappointed that Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., reintroduced his Do Not Track Kids Act (see 1506110015), a DMA news release said Friday, “citing robust existing protections for children in the online environment.” Do Not Track isn't necessary because protection for children is “already effectively provided through self-regulation,” said DMA Vice President-Government Affairs Rachel Nyswander Thomas. “Ironically, in order to enact the proposals put forth in Senator Markey’s bill, such as a ‘do not track’ button or an ‘eraser button,’ companies would have to collect more information -- not less -- about children online,” Thomas said. “Robust self-regulation is the best and most appropriate way to address privacy concerns, providing flexible, adaptive frameworks that keep pace with ever-changing technology,” she said. “DMA encourages Senator Markey and his Senate colleagues to bear in mind that children are growing up in a digital world, and increasingly their success in this global economy will depend on their ability to navigate online platforms and emerging technologies,” Thomas said. “Congressional action to unnecessarily inhibit growth in new areas of Internet innovation would be a disservice to children who benefit from richer data-driven learning experiences as they grow up in an increasingly data-driven world.” In 1998, DMA supported passage of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, participated in the FTC’s most recent update of COPPA, and continues to “support and enforce mechanisms that provide children with safe, engaging online resources,” the release said.
While app usage has transitioned from a novelty to an essential part of the mobile user experience, the number of apps used is staying the same, said a Nielsen study. Millions of apps are available, with more rolled out every day, but more than 70 percent of total app usage is coming from the top 200 apps, said Nielsen. App developers and marketers need to position apps effectively to stand out in an increasingly competitive market, it said. While there’s an app for “everyone, regardless of age, race or interest,” consumers have shown a threshold for the number of apps they use actively per month, it said. On average, smartphone users accessed 26.7 apps per month in Q4, roughly flat with Q4 2012. But the time they spend engaging with those apps has increased by 14 minutes per month, Nielsen said. Average time per month spent on apps per person has grown from 23:02 (hours and minutes) in Q4 2012 to 37:28 in Q4 2014, said Nielsen. The entertainment category -- covering a broad swath of content from weather forecasts to sports scores -- has contributed to the increase in app usage, driving a 13 percent year-on-year increase in Q4, as users spent nearly three hours more on apps during the period, Nielsen said. On smartphones, gaming is the biggest subcategory, with 76 percent of entertainment app users (115 million) reporting they played at least one game in Q4, followed by music and then movies/videos. Men’s monthly app usage averaged 27.2 versus 26.3 for women, but women spend more time per app at 38:02 minutes versus 36:51 for men, it said. African-Americans use the most apps per month (30.3) and spend nearly 43 hours per month on them, while Hispanics follow at 41:31 across an average 27.9 apps per month, it said. Asian-Americans average 37:14 per month on apps, while white non-Hispanic users spend 35:25 per month, it said.
Following spying concerns that emerged after former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden “revealed extensive U.S. government surveillance,” the U.S. tech industry as a whole underperformed, resulting in an economic impact far greater than the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation's initial $35 billion estimate, ITIF said in a news release Tuesday. That affected the cloud computing sector and the industry as a whole, ITIF said. In a report released Tuesday, ITIF cataloged a “wide range of specific examples of the economic harm that has been done to U.S. businesses as a result of unreformed government surveillance practices,” and “proposes a series of reforms designed to improve security, protect transparency, and increase cooperation and accountability in the global technology ecosystem,” the release said. “The U.S. government’s failure to meaningfully reform its surveillance practices has taken a serious economic toll on the U.S. tech sector and the total cost continues to grow each day,” said ITIF Vice President Daniel Castro, who co-wrote the report. “Foreign customers are increasingly shunning U.S. companies, and governments around the world are using U.S. surveillance as an excuse to enact a new wave of protectionist policies,” which is bad for U.S. companies, workers and the economy as a whole, Castro said. “Now that Congress has passed the USA Freedom Act, it is imperative that it turn its attention to reforming the digital surveillance activities that continue to impact our nation’s competitiveness,” he said. In its report, ITIF recommended policymakers “level the playing field for the U.S. tech sector” by implementing reforms like transparency about surveillance practices, opposing government efforts to weaken encryption or place backdoors in software, strengthening mutual legal assistance treaties with other nations, and combating anti-competitive practices by other nations, the release said. “Congress must decide how many American jobs it is willing to sacrifice in pursuit of intelligence gathering and find a better balance between economic interests and national security interests,” Castro said.
More than 25 groups, including privacy advocates, wrote to House leadership and Appropriations Committee and Defense Appropriations Subcommittee leaders Wednesday urging them to support an amendment to the Department of Defense Appropriations Act of 2016 (HR-2685) offered by Reps. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky. The amendment would “defund warrantless government searches of the database of information collected under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 using U.S. person identifiers, absent certain circumstances,” the letter said. The amendment would also “prohibit the use of appropriated funds to require or request that United States persons and entities build security vulnerabilities into their products or services in order to facilitate government surveillance, except as provided for by the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act,” the groups said. The amendment proposed this year is “identical to the Massie-Lofgren amendment that passed the House of Representatives by an overwhelming 293-vote majority in 2014, although it was not included in the omnibus appropriations bill that ultimately was enacted into law,” the letter said. Groups that signed the letter include the Center for Democracy & Technology, New America’s Open Technology Institute, Restore the Fourth, Sunlight Foundation and TechFreedom.
Two items topping the agenda for Thursday’s NTIA facial recognition multistakeholder meeting are whether a facial recognition software code should include an exception from user consent or withdrawal requirements for facial recognition technology that involve anti-fraud, loss prevention and related goals, and the importance of deciding on a “default condition” for user control requirements, NTIA Director-Privacy Initiatives John Verdi emailed stakeholders Tuesday. The matters were raised at NTIA’s facial recognition meeting in December (see 1412150064), but weren't resolved, Verdi said. “If the group can reach consensus on an approach to these issues, I’ve set aside time to discuss issues related to access, accuracy and audit trails.” Questions stakeholders will consider include: whether users have the right to audit how an entity uses facial recognition data and whether they can access the type and accuracy of that data; whether an entity should track how facial recognition data is used; how individuals can correct false negatives or false positives; how individuals can seek corrections from commercial entities; who's responsible for handling such matters; and whether the purpose of the technology is being used should be a factor in determining if an individual has access to the data, said the agenda. “The group will draft text concerning these issues if possible, and identify drafters to wordsmith text if drafting with the full group proves unwieldy,” Verdi said. “We will close with a brief discussion of logistics for future work and meetings” in July, September, October and November, he said. The meeting is 1-5 p.m. at the American Institute of Architects, 1735 New York Ave. NW. The meeting will also be webcast.
As of Wednesday, Twitter lets users share block lists with others, allowing a user to block multiple accounts in an easy, fast and community-driven way, User Safety Engineer Xiaoyun Zhang wrote in a blog post Wednesday. The new feature comes as Twitter recognizes some users experience “high volumes of unwanted interactions on Twitter” and require more sophisticated tools than individually muting and blocking other users, Zhang wrote. With the new feature, a user can export and share a block list with those facing similar issues or import another user’s block list to block multiple accounts at once. Twitter hopes these “advanced blocking tools will prove useful to the developer community to further improve users’ experience,” said Zhang. “This feature is yet another step towards making Twitter safer for everyone and will be available to some of our users starting [Wednesday] and all users in the coming weeks.”
Some Marriott hotels around the U.S. began letting guests sign onto their Netflix accounts on Internet-connected hotel room TVs, in a first such deal between the streaming video website and hotels, the lodging chain said in a Wednesday news release. The Netflix offering is available at six Marriott hotels and more than two dozen of its other Marriott International brand properties, and is expected to be in almost all Marriotts by the end of 2016, it said.