The NSA listed several safeguards to prevent improper surveillance of individuals, in an NSA Director of Civil Liberties and Privacy Office report released Tuesday (http://1.usa.gov/1oO6I6v). NSA employees whose training is incomplete or outdated aren’t allowed to use targeted surveillance systems and such surveillance must fall under the requirements in the National Intelligence Priorities Framework, it said. An NSA senior analyst or supervisor must review all targeting requests before they take place, it said. Senior officers must review data recovered by such targeting to verify that the data contains “foreign intelligence on foreign targets,” said the report. If an individual is mistakenly targeted, those involved in the surveillance must end operations; if the mistaken individual is a U.S. citizen, all collected data must be removed from NSA systems, it said. Initial collection and related decisions are “auditable,” it said.
With surveys showing that three out of four drivers believe hands-free technology is safe to use, “Americans may be surprised to learn that these popular new vehicle features may actually increase mental distraction,” the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety said Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1nc22fb). New research it commissioned suggests developers “can improve the safety of their products by making them less complicated, more accurate and generally easier to use,” it said. “While manufacturers continue their efforts to develop and refine systems that reduce distractions, AAA encourages drivers to minimize cognitive distraction by limiting the use of most voice-based technologies.” Using specialized equipment designed to measure reaction times, University of Utah researchers “evaluated and ranked common voice-activated interactions based on the level of cognitive distraction generated,” it said. The research team used a five-category rating system, similar to the scale used for ranking hurricanes’ strength, it said. It found the accuracy of voice recognition software “significantly influences the rate of distraction,” it said. Systems with low accuracy and reliability generated a high level (category 3) of distraction, it said. Composing text messages and emails using in-vehicle technologies (category 3) was more distracting than using these systems to listen to messages (category 2), it said. “The quality of the systems’ voice had no impact on distraction levels -- listening to a natural or synthetic voice both rated as a category 2 level of distraction."
House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., plans to release “a Cures legislative discussion draft in early January 2015,” looking to “swiftly move the legislation early in the next Congress,” he said in an opening statement at a roundtable in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Tuesday (http://1.usa.gov/1t1Bakz). He was referring to the committee’s 21st Century Cures initiative, which Upton has framed as a natural companion initiative to the overhaul of the Communications Act he also backs. Telehealth is one dimension that lawmakers involved in the 21st Century Cures initiative have examined, and groups such as the Telecommunications Industry Association have weighed in on that front as the committee considers any legislation.
A majority of bus drivers transporting Facebook employees to its offices in Menlo Park, California, are looking to join a union, said a letter Teamsters Local 853 sent to the company last week (http://bit.ly/ZQ8DBQ). “While your employees earn extraordinary wages and are able to live and enjoy life in some of the most exclusive neighborhoods in the Bay Area, these drivers can’t afford to support a family, send their children to school, or, least of all, afford to even dream of buying a house anywhere near where they work,” said Rome Aloise, Local 853 president. In addition to the meager pay, Aloise noted the long shifts -- which can start at 6 a.m., or last until 9:45 p.m. “This is reminiscent of a time when noblemen were driven around in their coaches by their servants,” Aloise said. “Frankly, little has changed; except the noblemen are your employees, and the servants are the bus drivers who carry them back and forth each day.” Facebook declined to comment.
Facebook revealed Audience Network, which lets third parties buy or host advertisements on mobile apps, in a Tuesday blog post (http://on.fb.me/1nYAtGR). “The Audience Network uses the same targeting and measurement features that marketers already use when advertising on Facebook,” it said. The company recently relaunched its Internet-wide ad platform Atlas, which received some pushback from privacy advocates over its targeted advertising opt-out policy, which still allows data collection (WID Sept 30 p7).
Net neutrality is a crucial right that requires congressional leadership, said Ro Khanna, a Democrat, Monday in a debate between candidates for the 17th congressional district seat in Silicon Valley. An attorney who was deputy assistant secretary of Commerce during President Barack Obama’s first term, Khanna is competing against Rep. Mike Honda, D-Calif., a senior member of Congress who backs net neutrality. The candidates emerged on top in an open primary earlier this year -- with Honda winning far more votes than Khanna -- and will go on to compete against one another in the November midterm elections. Khanna, who has backing from the technology industry, said Congress is “dysfunctional” and “slow-moving.” “The frustration people have, though, is nothing is getting done,” Khanna said of Honda’s tenure. “He has passed one bill in 14 years.” House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., has passed several bills, Khanna added. He lamented in the debate in San Jose what he called Honda’s connection to special interests and how people in Washington are “all bought and sold by lobbyists.” Khanna would seek Republican co-sponsors and meet with those who disagree with him, he said. Honda “is not bipartisan,” Khanna argued. “That is not who he is.” Honda defended his record, saying he has worked with Republicans: “I'm not burnt out. I've got a lot of gas in this tank, and I'm not even a hybrid.” Honda said he helped expand the presence of the Patent and Trademark Office in California. Both candidates criticized the Obama administration’s policies of government mass surveillance. Khanna slammed Honda for not being more outspoken on the issue and touted his own so-called Internet Bill of Rights. “First, a right to net neutrality, because we shouldn’t have people who pay special money get special access to the Internet,” Khanna said. “Every person should be free of mass surveillance.” People also have a right to know how companies use their data, he added. “Privacy of the individual is paramount,” Honda agreed, saying he believes Congress can resolve the challenge and citing his vote against the Patriot Act.
The FCC Wireline Bureau said it’s making changes to the FCC Form 477 filing interface, and as a result it remains closed Tuesday. The form is used for local phone competition and broadband reporting. The bureau said it closed the interface Sept. 26 (WID Oct 1 p11) “out of an abundance of caution,” but the closure presented an opportunity. “With access to the site suspended, we believe this is an opportune time to deploy newly-developed technical improvements to the interface that should significantly enhance its overall performance,” the bureau said (http://bit.ly/1vKRdBg). “We expect improvements in the stability and processing times of large file uploads.” The FCC Technological Advisory Council Working Group on Form 477 recommended the changes, the bureau said. It said it will offer an update on the site’s status in about two weeks, along with a new deadline for making Form 477 filings.
EU findings that ISPs there aren’t violating net neutrality rules despite “fear mongering on behalf of net neutrality proponents” also have implications in the U.S., said Roslyn Layton, visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute’s Center for Internet, Communications and Technology Policy, in a blog post Tuesday. Layton cited a news release last week from the EU (http://bit.ly/1xlOBdc). EU investigators did a thorough search, raiding the offices of Deutsche Telekom, Orange and Telefonica in July “during an unannounced investigation of the Internet and mobile service providers’ traffic management practices,” she said. “The EU Commission should be recognized for conducting a proper investigation of traffic management practices as part of its net neutrality rulemaking,” she wrote (http://bit.ly/1nYwfyZ). “When the evidence does not exist to support the proposed regulation, then the regulation should not be implemented. It’s a lesson just as important for the EU as it is for the US."
The International Trade Commission voted to open an investigation into a complaint that Samsung smartphones and tablets and the Samsung and Qualcomm processors built into those devices infringe Nvidia patents, the ITC said Monday (http://1.usa.gov/ZPS8Wk). Nvidia filed the complaint Sept. 4, seeking an exclusion order and a cease and desist order, the commission said. The complaint named Samsung Electronics America and its Korean parent as respondents, along with Samsung Telecommunications America, of Richardson, Texas; Samsung Semiconductor, of San Jose; and Qualcomm. Samsung corporate declined comment Tuesday. The opening of the investigation “is just the next step in the ITC procedure,” Qualcomm spokeswoman Yelena Tebcherani said in a Tuesday email, without commenting on the merits of the Nvidia complaint.
Last month’s leak of celebrity photos wasn’t a “scandal,” it was a “sex crime,” actress Jennifer Lawrence told Vanity Fair Tuesday (http://vnty.fr/1yJOs81). Lawrence was among those affected by the leak (WID Sept 3 p12). “The law needs to be changed, and we need to change. That’s why these Web sites are responsible,” said Lawrence. Google executives received a letter last week (http://bit.ly/1pJapJM) from Martin Singer of Lavely & Singer threatening the company with a lawsuit potentially in excess of $100 million for hosting the photos (WID Oct 3 p1). Copyright experts told us the difference between “general knowledge” and “specific knowledge” of infringing content under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s safe harbor laws makes this incident unlikely to produce a successful suit.