The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation ranked 125 countries on the amount of taxes and duties applied to information and communications technology goods, said ITIF in a report released Monday. Thirty-one countries impose taxes and duties that exceed 5 percent on ICT products, and Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Iran and Turkey are considered the “worst offenders,” said the ITIF. Governments frequently use ICT tariffs "in the mostly vain pursuit of protecting domestic industries" even though "when businesses face extra costs for importing goods, this gets reflected in their subsequent export price -- hurting their competitive position," ITIF said. Goods in the ICT sector are also seen by governments as an easy source of tax revenue because the products are considered as more of a luxury, it said. "These added costs limit ICT adoption and the productivity increases associated with it," it said. "If countries resist the temptation to impose excess taxes on ICT goods and services and eliminate ICT tariffs, they will reap the benefits in broader digital adoption by businesses and consumers, leading to faster economic growth and increased quality of life." The ITIF has spearheaded for years expansion of the Information Technology Agreement. Parties to the ITA, which total in the dozens, haven’t broadened the list of duty exempt products since the agreement’s 1996 inception, despite many IT industry developments.

The Telecommunications Industry Association expressed official concern about the FCC’s announcement Friday that the earliest possible date for the TV incentive auction is early 2016 (see 1410240048). “Deployment of this spectrum is essential to keeping pace with exploding consumer demand for mobile broadband, and this spectrum is a key part of the FCC's plan to address the looming spectrum crunch,” TIA said Monday. The group said it's “unfortunate” that progress has been slowed by legal challenges to the auction order.

Objections from content companies to outside counsel for Dish Network, Netflix and others accessing confidential documents in the Comcast/Time Warner Cable and AT&T/ DirecTV deals are based on programmers’ disagreement with FCC policy rather than problems with Dish and Netflix filings, the two companies said in separate filings posted in docket 14-57 Monday (see 1410220058). “These Objections are frivolous,” said Dish. “There is no basis for the assertion that Dish’s outside counsel and experts are engaged in Competitive Decision-Making, and the assertion is, in fact, untrue.” The objections are “nothing more than the pretext for a collateral attack” on the FCC modified protective order in the transaction proceedings, Netflix said. Both companies said the objections should be denied, and that their lawyers need access to the contract data at the heart of the dispute. “The Video Programming Confidential Information is essential to the thorough evaluation of arguments made by the Applicants, DISH, and others in these proceedings,” Dish said.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau dismissed notices of apparent liability against 10 small carriers for allegedly failing to offer to consumers the number of hearing aid-compatible digital wireless handset models required under FCC rules during the 2010 reporting period. Based on “our review of the record,” the carriers were in compliance, the bureau said in a Monday order.

The “potential” for data breaches “grows apace as the number of connected devices multiplies,” said FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez in remarks prepared for Monday's Internet of Things Global Summit. “The risks those breaches pose intensify as we adopt more and more devices linked to our physical safety, such as our cars, our medical care, and our homes.” The FTC is “concerned that some companies are underinvesting in security,” said Ramirez. “We’ve found that some organizations fail to take even the most basic security precautions, such as updating antivirus software or requiring network administrators to use strong passwords.” Data security should be built into a company’s devices from the “outset, not as an afterthought,” she said. Data collectors should “follow the principle of data minimization,” which would limit data collection for a “specific purpose," said Ramirez. Companies should also “appropriately de-identify consumer data,” she said. “Those handling data should give consumers simplified choices for unexpected collection or uses of their data,” Ramirez said. “Transparency” is the most important goal for data collectors, she said. Privacy policies for businesses are “broken,” she said. “Too many companies use them primarily as tools to shield themselves from liability,” said Ramirez: “This must change.” She said such policies should “clearly lay out what data is being collected, how it is being used, and with whom it will be shared.” The FTC last week commended the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for taking privacy and security concerns into account, in a rulemaking on vehicle-to-vehicle communication capability for passenger cars and light trucks (see 1410240027).

Consumer use of digital media and entertainment products in the U.S. is growing, said a Computer & Communications Industry Association-commissioned report released Thursday (http://bit.ly/1se2sx8). The report’s authors used several sources for the report, including the MPAA, the Pew Research Center and BookStats, it said. Music consumers legally bought 118 billion songs in 2013, it said. The video industry, which is “driven by online services,” is projected to exceed $36 billion revenue by 2017, it said. The e-book market grew from a $64 million industry in 2008 to $3 billion in 2012, it said.

The incentive auction is “interesting” to broadcasters even if the values for stations involved are half the amounts projected in the FCC’s Greenhill & Co. price estimates (see 1410020029), said Meredith Local Media Group President Paul Karpowicz on Meredith’s earnings call Thursday. Though Karpowicz said he believed the auction would happen “no question,” Meredith CEO Stephen Lacy said he doubted the auction would happen during his working career and he wouldn’t hold his breath waiting for “bags of money” from the auction to come to Meredith. According to Karpowicz, the Greenhill estimates show a Meredith station in Phoenix as worth in the auction a fraction of the value of another Meredith station in Springfield, Massachusetts. Phoenix at No. 12 is a much bigger Nielsen market than the designated market area including Springfield (http://bit.ly/1xenP5R).

Parks Associates will host a streaming media session at the Connections Summit Jan. 6 at CES Tech West in the Venetian Ballrooms Level 1, Casanova Rooms 601-603. The headline event is "Streaming Media Devices in the Video Ecosystem," 1:15-2:30 p.m. The panel will feature Michael Clegg, general manager-service provider business, Netgear; Jim Denney, general manager-product marketing, TiVo; Jim Funk, senior vice president-product management, Roku; Elad Nafshi, vice president-video product management, Comcast; Michael Paull, vice president-digital video, Amazon; and GW Shaw, vice president-U-verse and video product marketing, AT&T. In a prepared statement (http://bit.ly/1DEx7fE), TiVo’s Denney said streaming media is at a “crossroads” between content and hardware. The solution that provides consumers “the most content choices and the ability to watch that content on a variety of devices easily will be the one that wins," he said.

The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology sought comment Thursday on a proposal by Adaptrum for a test of fixed TV white space devices with antennas higher than current limits in FCC rules. Adaptrum proposed the test in a rural area in northeast Maine near the Canadian border, OET said. OET said it's reviewing the request but would welcome public comment. The Silicon Valley startup has already released two generations of white spaces devices (http://bit.ly/1wrZTfi). Comments are due Nov. 24; replies Dec. 9.

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich will keynote CES, CEA said Wednesday. Krzanich’s keynote, scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Jan. 6 in the Venetian's Palazzo Ballroom, will address the future of computing innovation, forces driving the next wave of consumer technology and Intel’s plans for redefining computing, CEA said.