Most journalists responding to a survey believe ISPs can't protect their data, said an online survey done in December of 671 members of the Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) association. The survey by the Pew Research Center, released Thursday, said 29 percent of respondents said their surveillance and data collection concerns changed the way they communicate with other reporters, editors or producers. Only 2 percent of IRE journalists said they're confident their ISP can protect their data from unauthorized parties. Seventy-one percent of investigative journalists have not much or no confidence in their ISPs' protecting their data, it said. About 64 percent said the U.S. government surveilled them, and collected data from their phone calls, emails or online communications. For every 10 IRE journalists, eight believe being a journalist increases the chance an individual’s data will be collected by the government. But 97 percent agree the benefits of digital communication outweigh the risks, the survey said. Investigative journalists covering national security, foreign affairs or the federal government believe they're targeted more often than other journalists, the survey said. Despite concerns about surveillance and hacking, “just” 14 percent of polled journalists said they have not pursued a story, reached out to a particular source or considered leaving journalism, the survey said. However, 49 percent of IRE journalists said the concerns have influenced the way they store or share sensitive documents. About half of the journalists surveyed who work for news organizations said their employer doesn’t do enough to protect journalists and sources from surveillance and hacking. About 47 percent said their news organization is doing enough.
“Big data will continue to contribute to and shape our society, and the Obama Administration will continue working to ensure that government and civil society strive to harness the power of these technologies while protecting privacy and preventing harmful outcomes,” wrote John Podesta, counselor to President Barack Obama, in a blog post Thursday announcing the White House’s release of an interim progress report on big data and privacy legislative efforts. The report’s release comes about a year after Podesta released a report on data collection in the U.S. “One novel finding of the working group report was the potential for big data technologies to circumvent longstanding civil rights protections and enable new forms of discrimination in housing, employment, and access to credit, among other areas,” Podesta said. The new report said the Obama administration has made progress on ensuring “student educational data is used only for educational purposes” and that “in the big-data era,” technologies aren't used “inadvertently or deliberately” to discriminate. The report includes six priority policy recommendations and “a host of smaller initiatives to further the conversation about big data and privacy,” such as creating a national standard for companies to notify customers in the event of a data breach, investing in big data research and technologies, and extending Privacy Act protections to non-U.S. persons. “Big data technologies raise serious concerns about how we protect personal privacy and our other values,” Podesta said. “As more data is collected, analyzed, and stored on both public and private systems, we must be vigilant in ensuring the balance of power is retained between government and citizens and between businesses and consumers.”
CEA hails the FCC "for recognizing the path forward involves a free, competitive and open Internet," President Gary Shapiro said Thursday in a statement. But the rules FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler outlined "don’t strike the right balance, failing to encourage the competition and investment needed to keep the Internet growing and thriving," he said. "There is a need for a reasonable and balanced approach, and reclassification to Title II isn’t it." Wheeler's proposal would reclassify broadband as a common carrier service and impose the same net neutrality rules on fixed and mobile broadband. CTIA President Meredith Baker was also critical of Wheeler's proposals. "The mobile innovation and investment -- $120 billion since 2010 alone -- that American consumers rely on will be placed at risk by the FCC applying intrusive regulatory restrictions on mobile broadband for the first time," Baker said.
Following a CES jam-packed with Internet of Things and smart home hopefuls, IHS in a post-show analysis identified opportunities and challenges for the fledgling market. Privacy and the need for standards are formidable challenges facing the IoT, but huge opportunities exist in an “increasingly tech-savvy consumer market” for the entire chain from semiconductor companies to appliance makers, IHS said. It predicted a potential connected universe of 30-90 billion devices within five years. Competing technologies and standards threaten growth within the IoT ecosystem, said IHS, citing Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Smart, 6LoPAN, ZigBee and cellular. At CES, groups such as the Open Interconnect Consortium, backed by Atmel, Broadcom, Dell, Intel and Samsung, were working to establish a connectivity protocol to enable interoperability among connected devices within a few years. The cost to connect within the IoT is “cheap” enough to make the IoT a reality this year, said IHS. Sensors will drive opportunities in consumer devices, and “cost-effective silicon” will drive shipments of nearly 12 billion sensors into consumer and mobile applications, up from 5.6 billion in 2012, it said. Data collected from the sensors have “vast implications” as the information becomes aggregated across many users in the cloud, said the industry researcher. The ability to analyze large amounts of data to track behavioral trends -- such as the way millions of consumers use devices -- can create “a level of predictive intelligence that is completely novel,” said IHS. The ubiquity of the smartphone and its ability to communicate via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and cellular positions it well as the gateway to the IoT, IHS said, but the smartphone has to continue to learn more languages as the IoT expands. On smart homes, “a holistic approach to IoT problem solving is needed,” instead of the piecemeal approach now offered by disparate devices, IHS said. It envisioned a “package” approach combining hardware, firmware, middleware, application software, cloud services and other components delivered by solution providers as the “key to integration.” The smart home market is still a few years away from mainstream penetration due to the lack of interoperability among different systems, which is "causing confusion for the average consumer,” said IHS.
Pandora joined the Internet Association, becoming its 29th member, an IA news release said Wednesday. Other members include Amazon, Facebook and Google. IA asked Congress last week to renew Trade Promotion Authority and to consider limitations and exceptions for copyright (see 1501290054).
Verizon’s new cookie opt-out plan is an “improvement” for consumer privacy, the Electronic Frontier Foundation said in a blog post Tuesday. But the plan doesn’t “go nearly far enough to fix the problem,” it said. “The millions of Verizon customers who are unaware of the tracking header and their new ability to opt-out are still exposed to the risk of zombie cookies from firms less visible than Turn,” a digital marketing firm, EFF said. Such cookies allow previously deleted cookies to be uncovered and shared with other ad firms, EFF said in a January blog post. “Customers who assume their mobile OS' tracking opt-out or their browser's privacy modes will be respected by Verizon are also still vulnerable,” it said. EFF said Verizon made changes to its cookie program after pressure from Senate Commerce Committee leaders and an EFF petition to the FCC to investigate Verizon’s privacy practices. Verizon didn’t comment.
Legal research website Casetext raised $7 million in a Series A funding round, said a company news release Tuesday. The financing round was led by Union Square Ventures and included Formation 8 and former Thomson Reuters CEO Tom Glocer, it said. Casetext lets lawyers comment on court cases and legal statutes for free, it said.
Intel said it agreed to buy German broadband access and networking solutions company Lantiq. By combining Intel’s cable gateway business and Lantiq’s broadband access technology, the companies hope to transform broadband customer premises equipment into a smart gateway that connects “an increasingly diverse roster of devices in the home,” Lantiq CEO Dan Artusi said Monday. The acquisition, for an undisclosed amount, will enable Intel to extend its offerings in the cable residential gateway market to other opportunities such as DSL, fiber, LTE, retail and Internet of Things smart routers, the companies said. By 2018, they predict there will be more than 800 million broadband households worldwide.
Google signed a new privacy agreement with the U.K.’s Information Commissioner’s Office, an ICO news release said Friday. The ICO said Google’s privacy policy from March 2012 didn’t “include sufficient information for service users as to how and why their personal data was being collected." “This undertaking marks a significant step forward following a long investigation and extensive dialogue,” said Steve Eckersley, ICO enforcement head, in the release. “Google’s commitment today to make these necessary changes will improve the information UK consumers receive when using their online services and products. ... Ensuring that personal data is processed fairly and transparently is a key requirement of the Act.”
Google’s revenue in 2014 was $66 billion, up 19 percent year-over-year, the company said in a news release Thursday. Its Q4 revenue was $18.1 billion, a 15 percent increase from the same period in 2013, it said. The company’s net profit in Q4 was $4.76 billion, up $1.38 billion from Q4 2013. “Aggregate” paid clicks on Google sites and its network members were up 14 percent in Q4, and up 11 percent from Q3. The average cost per click on such sites decreased about 3 percent from Q3 and Q4 2013. Google had $64.4 billion in cash and market securities Dec. 31.