The top U.S. cable providers and telcos added more than 2.6 million net broadband subscribers in 2013, said Leichtman Research Group Monday. Gains at those 17 companies, which collectively have 93 percent of the U.S. broadband market, were about 95 percent of all net broadband subscriber gains for the year, Leichtman said. Top cable companies continued to dominate the U.S. broadband market, ending 2013 with 49.3 million broadband subscribers, compared with 35 million broadband subscribers through top telcos. Comcast added 1.3 million net subscribers in 2013 -- 49 percent of the net adds from top companies, Leichtman said. Top cable companies saw their share of subscriber additions shrink to 82 percent in 2013 from 88 percent in 2012. Top telcos added 480,000 net broadband subscribers in 2013, 146 percent of their total net additions in 2012, Leichtman said (http://bit.ly/1iWcbdo).
Government officials, lawyers, and privacy advocates will debate the legal and policy issues of the government’s Internet surveillance program during a Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) all-day hearing Wednesday, said a PCLOB Thursday evening news release. General counsels from the FBI, NSA and Office of the Director of National Intelligence will start with the administration’s position on Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which authorizes Internet surveillance actions. Civil society group representatives -- American Civil Liberties Union Deputy Legal Director Jameel Jaffer and Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty and National Security Program Counsel Rachel Levinson-Waldman -- will join law professors from Georgetown University Law School and Hofstra University to discuss Section 702’s legal issues. An international panel of lawyers, academics and researchers will conclude by weighing in on the transnational policy issues Section 702 raises. PCLOB is preparing a report that will focus on Internet surveillance, which it expects to release in a couple months (CD Jan 31 p15). The board’s previous report recommended eliminating the government’s phone metadata collection program, suggesting seeking that metadata from communications providers instead while imposing data retention mandates (CD Jan 24 p5).
Senior Cybersecurity Director Andy Ozment will leave the White House to become assistant secretary of homeland security for cybersecurity and communications, DHS officials said Wednesday in a blog post. Ozment will head the National Protection and Programs Directorate’s (NPPD) Office of Cybersecurity and Communications, which will be leading DHS work on implementation of President Barack Obama’s cybersecurity executive order, including industry use of the National Institute of Standards and Technology-created Cybersecurity Framework, DHS said. Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Gregory Touhill will become DHS deputy assistant secretary-cybersecurity operations and programs, said Phyllis Schneck, DHS deputy undersecretary-cybersecurity and communications, and Suzanne Spaulding, DHS deputy undersecretary-NPPD. Roberta Stempfley, who was acting DHS assistant secretary-cybersecurity and communications, will become deputy assistant secretary-cybersecurity strategy and emergency communications (http://xrl.us/bqppcc). Ozment will join DHS April 7. Former FCC Public Safety Bureau Chief Jamie Barnett, now co-chairman of Venable’s telecom and cybersecurity practice, said in a statement that Ozment “has done a superb job” leading development and implementation of Obama’s cybersecurity executive order, which mandated creation of the Cybersecurity Framework. Ozment’s work on the implementation has “has dramatically strengthened the public-private partnership on cybersecurity,” Barnett said.
Europe’s digital technology industry cheered a European Parliament vote on a network and information security directive Thursday (CD March 13 p15). The final text wasn’t available, but DigitalEurope and BSA/The Software Alliance said legislative changes made the measure more palatable. Parliament mitigated several “troubling provisions” in the original draft and the current version could potentially improve cybersecurity protection, BSA said. Lawmakers focused on protecting critical infrastructure, both organizations said. The measure will succeed if it’s based on clear, future-proof definitions and a proportional, risk-based approach that gives the private sector room to innovate in response to fast-changing cyberthreats, BSA said. The parliamentary text supports coordination at the European level, recognizes the global nature of cybersecurity and takes a targeted line, said DigitalEurope. BSA said it now wants the Council to add more harmonization of cyberattack reporting requirements for market operators to avoid a patchwork of potentially conflicting legal requirements across the EU.
"The NSA is acting like a spambot,” said Center for Democracy & Technology Senior Counsel Harley Geiger, responding in a statement to a report on The Intercept that details the National Security Agency’s (NSA) expansion of a program to covertly hack into computers using malware “on a mass scale,” (http://bit.ly/PsPfFL). Geiger said, “The use of malware implants should be targeted against specific threats in tightly controlled situations, but this kind of mass automated surveillance would put countless Internet users at risk.” The report -- by Glenn Greenwald and Ryan Gallagher and based on documents provided by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden -- said the NSA has posed as a fake Facebook server and sent out spam emails with malware to infiltrate computers, take snapshots, make audio records and exfiltrate files from hard drives. “By deploying malware on systems broadly, especially in such an automated fashion, the NSA could potentially introduce new vulnerabilities and make the systems even more susceptible to attacks by third parties and other governments, a problem the agency itself acknowledges is occurring,” Geiger said.
Experts largely agree on how technology will change, but disagree widely on how those changes will affect society -- for better and worse -- said a Pew Research Center report released Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1fm2nl3). With Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center, Pew canvassed 1,500 Internet experts for their predictions on how technology will change life by 2025. Some of the consensus responses: There will be “a global, immersive, invisible, ambient networked computing environment;” more common wearable or implantable technology; and robust “intelligence analytical mapping of the physical and social realms,” Pew reported. The most affected business models will be finance, entertainment, education and content publishers across media, Pew said. Not all changes are seen as positive. “This is the sixth ‘Future of the Internet’ survey we have conducted since 2004, and for the first time most people are seeing and vividly describing as many potential negatives as they are identifying positives,” said Elon Professor Janna Anderson, a lead author of the report. “They worry about interpersonal ethics, surveillance, terror and crime and the inevitable backlash as governments and industry try to adjust.” The surveys were conducted from November to January, Pew said.
U.S. AM and FM radio stations extended their reach by half a million listeners year-over-year, according to a Nielsen report released Monday. Some 244 million Americans ages 12 and older use radio during the Monday-Sunday midnight to midnight hours, with daily time spent listening to radio holding even at roughly 2 hours and 41 minutes per day, Nielsen said. Nielsen’s radio measurements don’t include streaming or Internet radio stations outside of listening done through broadcasters’ Internet radio streams, a Nielsen spokesman told us. While Nielsen doesn’t currently measure “pure plays” such as Pandora or Spotify, “we are working right now on developing a measurement that would capture all online and digital listening sources,” the spokesman said. Nielsen will make an announcement on additional radio measurement offerings later this year, he said. Pandora CEO Brian McAndrews last week applauded the Media Rating Council’s accreditation of Triton Digital, which will benefit Pandora’s measurement of listening hours versus local radio hours as it competes for advertising. The Nielsen report, which covers Jan. 3-Dec. 4, 2013, includes data from all 48 Nielsen Portable People Meter markets. It measures 46 individual radio networks operated by AdLarge Media, American Urban Radio Networks, Crystal Media Networks, Cumulus Media Networks, Premiere Networks, United Stations Radio Networks and WestwoodOne.
Disney slashed about 700 jobs, about 25 percent of its interactive game division, as part of a restructuring, the company said Friday. Disney Interactive “consolidated several lines of business as part of an effort to focus the division on a streamlined suite of high quality digital products,” a spokesman said. “These actions were difficult but necessary given our long-term strategy focused on sustainable profitability and innovation.” Playdom, which makes social games, will continue to operate as Playdom, but Disney Interactive’s social and mobile games businesses will now operate under one leader, said the spokesman, who declined to name that leader. “No action” was being made with the Disney Infinity game and staffing, he said. The company “will continue to invest in and grow” that business, he said. “We will focus on priority projects, and this includes console games,” but it “will not be developing console games in-house, outside of” Disney Infinity, anymore, he said. “We will instead pursue licensing partnerships where applicable,” he said. The cuts weren’t a surprise. Disney had restructuring charges of $1 million related to the interactive division in Q1 ended Dec. 28, it said in a 10-Q SEC filing. The company declined to say then what the charges were for. The restructuring charge and comments made by Disney CEO Robert Iger on an earnings call pointed to significant changes being made in the company’s game division to increase profitability. “You'll see more licensing rather than publishing on the console side” of the game business, “except for” Disney Infinity, he said.
Some 54 percent of Americans 16 and older are satisfied with the technologies in their primary vehicles and are more aware of original equipment manufacturer versus aftermarket technology solutions, according to research released Friday from CEA. CEA cited growth in technologies such as in-dash navigation systems, rearview/backup cameras, in-vehicle communications, safety or entertainment systems, remote vehicle starters and car alarms. Forty-two percent of respondents said they planned to purchase an in-vehicle tech device or accessory in the next year, it said, and 47 percent said they were interested in using apps designed for easier and safer use in the car. According to data, two in five consumers plan to buy devices such as car alarms, remote vehicle starters, in-dash car stereos and in-dash navigation systems for their vehicles. They also want items that simplify use of a mobile device such as connection options for smartphones and MP3 players, hands-free phone products and mounts to hold devices safely in an “easily visible manner.” The State of In-Vehicle Technologies online study was conducted in September with a national sample of 997 U.S. residents 16 or older who had ridden in a nonpublic transportation vehicle in the previous month.
A memorandum of understanding between the FTC and U.K. Information Commissioner’s Office “is designed to bolster their privacy enforcement partnership,” said an FTC release Thursday night (http://1.usa.gov/1gdibHn). “The FTC needs to be able to work with privacy enforcers around the globe in investigating potential violations of law,” said FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez. “This arrangement with our UK counterpart will help us cooperate on privacy investigations more effectively.” The agreement came the same day the FTC, European Union and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation revealed a checklist for companies wanting to self-certify they are following the data security standards required to transfer data among each organization’s jurisdiction (CD March 7 p14).