Marketing analytics companies comScore and Neustar are partnering to bring comScore’s “accredited metrics” to Neustar’s PlatformOne, which measures digital marketing efforts, a Thursday news release said (http://bit.ly/1c1GjxB). “Our partnership with comScore is one of many important alliances we have made, and will continue to make, to ensure that PlatformOne is at the forefront of helping marketers drive ROI [return on investment] in an increasingly complex digital marketing ecosystem,” said Ted Prince, Neustar senior vice president-information services.
ICANN confirmed it received a follow-up letter Wednesday from its major constituencies and stakeholder groups with 20 questions, many with amended sub-questions, on ICANN’s accountability process (CD Aug 28 p14), a spokesman said. ICANN received a letter from the groups Aug. 26 questioning its accountability process released Aug. 14 (http://bit.ly/1vdRn3j) (CD Aug 27 p9). “Why is the Cross Community Group not also encouraged to recommend solutions to the Coordination Group?” one of the sub-questions inquired. The letter also asked whether the final recommendations of the Coordination Group -- to be approved by the ICANN board -- would be submitted to ICANN’s supporting organizations and advisory committees before being finalized. ICANN should initiate a 21-day public comment period on the accountability process, it said. ICANN didn’t commit Tuesday to holding a public comment period on the accountability process, during an Internet Governance Forum session (CD Sept 3 p15).
Institute for Policy Innovation President Tom Giovanetti urged the FCC to reject the municipal broadband petitions filed by the Electric Power Board in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and the city of Wilson, North Carolina, saying in a Thursday blog post that “the power to regulate state affairs belongs to the states” (http://bit.ly/1unQ5CM). IPI recently filed comments on the Wilson petition, docket 14-115, opposing both petitions because a state has a constitutional right to use its prerogative as a state to restrict municipal broadband (http://bit.ly/1ryXsr6). States “have the power to limit and regulate municipal entry into broadband provision, and their concerns are just and legitimate,” Giovanetti said in the blog post. The 10th Amendment gives states “the power to regulate their internal matters, including that of whether the state will allow municipalities to build broadband systems subjecting all citizens of the state to the risk of failure,” he said.
Local Corp. settled its patent infringement case against Fry’s Electronics, Local said in a news release Wednesday (http://bit.ly/Z7oU4w). The terms of the settlement are confidential, it said. Local Corp. sued Fry’s in 2012 for its alleged infringement of Local’s U.S. Patent No. 7,062,453, which covers “'methods and systems for dynamic networked commerce architecture,'” it said. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court of Central California, said a Local Corp. spokeswoman. “We are very pleased with the outcome of this settlement, and we believe this further validates the significant unlocked value of our robust patent portfolio,” Local Corp. CEO Fred Thiel said. Fry’s didn’t comment.
Solon Barocas, a Princeton University Center for Information Technology Policy postdoctoral research associate, and three FTC officials will give the two presentations at the agency’s Sept. 15 daylong workshop on big data (http://1.usa.gov/1nXij2k). FTC officials will also speak, while privacy advocates, data de-identification researchers and industry representatives will fill out the four panels on big data: Its technology, current uses, potential for harm and policy ramifications. FTC officials Chief Technologist Latanya Sweeney and Technology and Data Governance Research Fellow Jinyan Zan will give a presentation on “Digging into the Data.” Sweeney is widely considered to be one of the most prominent data de-identification researchers. Barocas will present his research on “the novel challenges that data mining poses to fairness and privacy,” said his personal website. “I've looked at the use of predictive analytics for counterterrorism, voter microtargeting in political campaigns, the impact of data mining techniques on model-building in economics and finance and the integration of evidence-based medicine with clinical decision support systems.” Chairwoman Edith Ramirez, Commissioner Julie Brill and Consumer Protection Bureau Director Jessica Rich will also speak.
Countries are too reliant on an “all-or-nothing” approach to Internet policy and haven’t made enough progress on a framework to resolve international conflicts incrementally, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) will say in a report to be released Sept. 9, said a Tuesday news release (http://bit.ly/1BabXVw). “This dichotomy fails to provide a pragmatic path forward to resolve the inevitable conflicts that arise in a manner that respects sovereignty while at the same time maintaining the global nature of the Internet,” ITIF said. In its report, ITIF will propose its own policy framework “that allows nations the right to customize Internet policy to their own national needs and rules, while at the same time constraining those rights in ways that enables global Internet commerce."
ICANN indicated it would “slow down and listen” to concerns about its accountability process, without committing to a public comment period on the process, at an Internet Governance Forum session Tuesday (CD Sept 2 p13), emailed IGF attendee and NetChoice Executive Director Steve DelBianco. ICANN received a letter Aug. 26 from its major constituencies and shareholder groups questioning its accountability process released Aug. 14 (http://bit.ly/1vdRn3j) (CD Aug 28 p14). ICANN board Chairman Steve Crocker wants to “get moving on the substance of accountability mechanisms,” but was “dismissive about concerns over process, and suggested that ICANN already has plenty of accountability mechanisms,” said DelBianco. NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling “advised us to keep a narrow scope of accountability topics,” DelBianco said. Strickling wants “to keep [accountability] simple,” so as to expedite the transition of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, said DelBianco. “Many of us want a broad scope of accountability issues, because we see this as our last best hope to get mechanisms that will force ICANN’s board and management to be accountable to the community -- not just to the ICANN corporation.” Strickling, ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade and Christopher Painter, the State Department’s cyberissues coordinator, reaffirmed their commitment to the multistakeholder approach at a high-level meeting Monday at the Istanbul event (http://bit.ly/1nSOlwp). Painter was speaking on behalf of Catherine Novelli, State Department undersecretary for economic growth.
Microsoft won’t turn over emails from its Ireland data center, a spokesman said Tuesday by email, despite a federal judge’s late Friday ruling to lift the freeze on the government’s search warrant (http://on.wsj.com/1A28ndE) (case No. 13-mj-02814). The U.S. District Court in New York ruled in July that Microsoft must provide U.S. law enforcement with emails, even though they were stored overseas. Microsoft had in June challenged a federal judge’s order to turn over the customer’s data (http://wapo.st/UFFjLs). Microsoft said it will appeal the decision. “Everyone agrees this case can and will proceed to the appeals court,” a spokesman said. “This is simply about finding the appropriate procedure for that to happen."
Mozilla is still working on a patch to block third-party cookies in its Firefox browser, Senior Vice President-Business and Legal Affairs Denelle Dixon-Thayer told us by email. “Advertising practices such as commercial tracking that are non-transparent and ignore user signals like Do Not Track are not sustainable for a healthy Web economy over the long term.” Advertising officials told us last week that browsers blocking third-party cookies had once been a No. 1 concern, but they're not currently worried about the cookies’ imminent downfall (CD Sept 2 p9). In 2013, Mozilla expressed plans to block third-party cookies, but the company has yet to do so. Dixon-Thayer said Mozilla delayed its cookie-blocking plans because the patch wasn’t robust enough. “Mozilla has been testing a patch that blocks many third-party cookies in our Aurora build of Firefox, and determined that it does not offer the level of tracking protection that users would expect,” she said. “We have been exploring additional solutions and plan to test new initiatives to give users more control over the flow of their data.”
ICANN secured a new 90-minute session on its accountability process (CD Aug 27 p9) at the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) Tuesday in Istanbul (http://bit.ly/1vCQzsu) (CD Aug 28 p4), said an ICANN news release Friday (http://bit.ly/1rEMimR). ICANN received a letter Aug. 26 from its major constituencies and shareholder groups questioning its accountability process released Aug. 14 (http://bit.ly/1vdRn3j) (CD Aug 28 p14). The ICANN community is “very passionate about every detail” of all ICANN’s processes, and ICANN plans to discuss the accountability process with concerned stakeholders at IGF, said Baher Esmat, ICANN vice president-Middle East stakeholder engagement, in an interview last week. The transition of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority to ICANN and its accompanying accountability process will be discussed in a Friday session at IGF (http://bit.ly/1nh17YM), although Esmat expected both issues to be raised throughout the week, he said. ICANN also plans to express support for the IGF, as the UN continues its review of the World Summit on the Information Society that produced IGF, he said. Candidate submissions for the seven advisers within the Public Experts Group of ICANN’s accountability process are due Sept. 10, said an ICANN new release Thursday (http://bit.ly/1mZr3EP). The Council of Europe will present at the IGF a report (http://bit.ly/1r6MJEN) that found that ICANN’s “current rules for new gTLDs do not fully comply with freedom of expression and privacy standards and contains recommendations on how to address this,” the council said in a news release Friday. The council plans to address a range of human rights issues at IGF, including cybersecurity and privacy rights, it said.