June 2010

Facebook Wednesday rolled out more of its promised changes to its privacy policies and controls, announcing that it will now require third party Web sites and applications to obtain user permission before accessing private data they post to the social networking site.

These are the latest changes launched by Facebook in recent weeks in response to criticisms from some users, privacy advocates and lawmakers who had complained the social networking site's settings and privacy polices undermined user privacy.

The new settings will only allow Web sites or third-party applications that run on Facebook to access public data about users, such as their names, profile pictures, gender and networks, and require them to obtain permission from users before accessing private data from a user's profile, Facebook Chief Technology Officer Bret Taylor said in a blog post.

"Last month, we announced a number of changes to make privacy simpler and to give you more control over the information you share with other people," Taylor said. "Today, we're taking the next step by providing more transparency and control over the information you share with third party applications and Web sites with a new, simpler application authorization process."

Leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee wrote FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski Wednesday seeking input on draft legislation the panel is crafting that would implement recommendations for the creation of a national interoperable broadband public safety network as well as information on the state of the public safety communications market.

The letter was sent by Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif, ranking member Joe Barton, R-Texas, Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., and subcommittee ranking member Cliff Stearns, R-Fla. Boucher's panel held a hearing earlier this month on his draft public safety communications bill that would implement recommendations included in the FCC's national broadband plan for the creation of an interoperable network for public safety.

The FCC plan recommended that the D-block of spectrum be auctioned to commercial bidders, and the proceeds be used to help build the public safety network. The FCC has directed that public safety be given 10 megahertz of spectrum for such a network. In addition to implementing these recommendations, Boucher's draft bill would authorize federal funds if the auction proceeds are not enough to build the public safety network.

Public safety officials oppose the proposal to auction the D-Block for commercial use and have called on Congress to reallocate the D-Block directly for public safety use, saying the FCC's proposal is insufficient to meet public safety needs.

Boucher and FCC officials have countered that the legislation and the broadband plan would allow public safety officials to obtain priority access to roam on commercial networks during emergencies. The House lawmakers' letter seeks information, by July 15, on the current public safety device and equipment market and whether the use of proprietary solutions has affected interoperability efforts.

"The draft contemplates that public safety would operate its narrowband network using the same air interface as commercial licensees in the 700 megahertz band," the letter said. "In addition to helping ensure interoperability, [the national broadband plan] suggests that this approach would allow public safety to take advantage of economies of scale associated with a market in which there are a variety of commercial providers purchasing equipment and devices from a range of vendors."

The FCC announced Wednesday that Douglas C. Sicker will assume the role of chief technologist at the commission. A veteran of the FCC, Sicker previously served as chief of the commission's Network Technology Division.

"I am delighted that Dr. Sicker is returning to provide the FCC with his broad and deep knowledge about the communications networks and technologies of today and tomorrow," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said in a statement.

Sicker will be returning to the FCC after a stint as an associate professor of computer science at the University of Colorado at Boulder. In addition to his new job as chief technologist, he also will serve on the FCC's Technical Advisory Council.

Sicker has a long resume in telecommunications. He had a hand in the FCC's national broadband plan, working on issues related to research and development. He also has worked as the head of global architecture at Level 3 Communications, Inc.

The Center for Democracy and Technology filed a complaint Wednesday with the FTC against an online data aggregator and broker that the group claims has engaged in unfair and deceptive practices.

The complaint alleges that Spokeo Inc. has violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act and engaged in unfair and deceptive business practices.

Spokeo advertises itself as a "search engine specialized in organizing people-related information from phone books, social networks, marketing lists, business sites, and other public sources." By searching for an individual's name, information about his or her address, interests, occupation, "wealth level" and "credit estimate," among other items, appear.

CDT claims that Spokeo provides a consumer report without the protections required by the FCRA. CDT cites missing legal protections, such as limitations on who can access the personal report and making individuals aware of adverse actions that can be taken as a result of information obtained in the report.

CDT also claims that Spokeo's data is not reliable and that it makes money by getting people to sign up for more in-depth reports featuring personal details such as estimated income and investments -- information it may not have, according to CDT.

"Spokeo's service is particularly troubling as much of the information is inaccurate or misleading," Justin Brookman, a senior resident fellow at CDT said in a statement. "And the site is marketed to employers and other decision makers who could rely on the advertised credit, wealth and lifestyle data to make negative judgments about consumers without their awareness."

Spokeo did not respond to a request for comment.

The European Commission announced Wednesday that it has launched an examination into the issue of network neutrality that will look at such issues as whether Internet service providers should be allowed to adopt network management practices that prioritize certain types of content over others.

The commission's "consultation" on the issue also will examine the level of competition between Internet service providers, whether certain Internet traffic management practices may create problems or harm for consumers, and whether the European Union's current telecom rules are adequate or whether further action is needed to "ensure fairness in the Internet market."

"I am committed to keeping the Internet open and neutral. Consumers should be able to access the content they want," Neelie Kroes, the commission's vice president for the digital agenda, said in a statement. "Content providers and operators should have the right incentives to keep innovating. But traffic management and net neutrality are highly complex issues. I do not assume that one approach or another should prevail."

The commission is seeking input from all stakeholders including Internet service and content providers, consumer groups, businesses and others, who will have until Sept. 30 to submit comments. After reviewing the comments, the commission said in a statement that it will issue a "communication" on the issue by the end of the year outlining whether it will craft new rules or guidance on the issue.

In April, AT&T praised the commission's approach on the issue following a speech by Kroes in which she embraced the FCC's open Internet principles, while urging caution against imposing new restrictions aimed at preserving an open Internet. "AT&T could not agree more, and hopes that the U.S. will exercise the same judgment and follow the same deliberative path as Commissioner Kroes has outlined for Europe," AT&T Executive Vice President Jim Cicconi wrote in a blog post at the time.

An AT&T spokesman Wednesday noted that Kroes said in announcing the consultation that she would try to "strike the right balance between all the interests involved."

A broad coalition of nonprofit groups have written FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski reiterating their support for his efforts to reclassify some aspects of broadband as a telecommunications service in order to ensure the agency has authority over broadband providers.

The letter, sent Tuesday, was signed by representatives from 150 groups including Color of Change, Common Cause, Free Press, the National Organization for Women, NTEN: Nonprofit Technology Network, and others, many of which are local groups scattered throughout the country. The groups said that reclassifying broadband is essential to giving the FCC the authority to bar broadband providers from discriminating against Internet content in the wake of April's federal appeals court decision that found the commission overstepped its authority when it enforced network neutrality principles against Comcast.

"We believe that attempting to move forward without clarifying the FCC's regulatory authority would bring about continued uncertainty, placing at great risk not only net neutrality, but also other elements of the commission's national broadband plan," according to the letter. "Failure to protect the Internet would impair our ability to share information, empower people, and carry out our public interest work."

Broadband providers and other opponents of Genachowski's reclassification plan, which he has dubbed the "third way," say it will stifle broadband investment and undermine the FCC's efforts through its national broadband plan to expand high-speed Internet access and adoption.

"It will create investment uncertainty at a time when certainty is most needed," AT&T Senior Executive Vice President Jim Cicconi said earlier this month when the FCC approved the notice of inquiry on Genachowski's proposal. "It will no doubt damage jobs in a period of far-too-high unemployment. It will also undermine the FCC's own goals for the National Broadband Plan."

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, the Republican nominee in this fall's Senate race in California, found a silver lining in the latest poll showing her trailing Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.

The poll of 600 registered voters released Tuesday by Reuters showed Boxer leading Fiorina 45 percent to 41 percent.

But Fiorina was undeterred, saying in a news release that the poll "confirms California's junior senator is still unable to reach the 50 percent threshold of support expected of most incumbents. And despite the Obama administration's multiple attempts to prop up Boxer's political career, Carly Fiorina is today trailing by a mere four points."

In the race for California governor, the poll, which had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points, also showed former Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat who currently serves as California attorney general, leading former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, the GOP nominee, 45 percent to 39 percent.

Civil liberties advocates are pleased some of their recommendations were included in new privacy policies that allow agencies to use Web site-tracking tools and third-party applications, but they are disappointed the guidelines omit more important safeguards that could better protect the public, Nextgov.com reported.

On Friday, the Office of Management and Budget ended a 10-year ban on cookies, which monitor what a user does on a Web site, and updated privacy notice requirements for sites such as Facebook and YouTube that incorporate nongovernment social networking tools. The regulations give agencies the green light to install online interactive features that citizens typically encounter on commercial sites, but the agencies must follow a strict set of conditions.

For example, sites using cookies to gather personally identifiable information that can be traced back to an individual's name, such as the location of an Internet server, must delete this data within a year. Cookies are files saved on users' computers when they visit a Web site and often store a visitors' login information and remember their preferences, as well as monitor a site's traffic volume and visitor demographics. Under the rules announced Friday, agencies that use third-party services to collect personally identifiable information also must conduct multiple privacy impact assessments to determine whether controls are in place that meet federal privacy regulations.

"I will say that they certainly listened," said Chris Calabrese, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. "The cookie policy is very good in a lot of ways and bad in one major way," because it exempts law enforcement, national security and intelligence activities from the privacy limits.

"An individual shouldn't fear tracking if they want to get information on government services," he said. "In many cases the government is the authoritative source for information. Anybody should be able to get that anonymously and without concern about what might [happen] because they are interested in that information."

OMB officials said the policy does not create exceptions. Rather, pre-existing laws, including the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and executive orders forbid such OMB privacy policies from applying to law enforcement, national security and intelligence organizations. Officials also pointed out agencies cannot collect personally identifiable information unless a user opts-in to divulge such information, a policy Calabrese applauded. Many commercial sites automatically gather personally identifiable information from visitors, unless the individual takes action to opt-out.

The memo tries to cover all possible categories of personally identifiable information by not restricting the definition to a laundry list of items such as e-mail addresses, Social Security numbers and ZIP codes. Instead, determining what it is "requires a case-by-case assessment of the specific risk that an individual can be identified," the memo stated. "It is important for an agency to recognize that non-personally identifiable information can become personally identifiable information whenever additional information is made publicly available -- in any medium and from any source -- that, when combined with other available information, could be used to identify an individual."

The Electronic Privacy Information Center, which OMB also consulted, asked the Obama administration to stick with the traditional tracking prohibitions aimed at protecting civil liberties and was disappointed with the policy.

"It is stunning that the White House could develop these policies and make no mention of the federal privacy act," said EPIC Executive Director Marc Rotenberg. "That law regulates the collection and use of personal information by federal agencies. Without a legal basis for these policies, it remains unclear what force they will have, or how readily they could be changed." To read more, click here.

A new report released Tuesday from the European Commission said that while price caps imposed by the European Union have led to a drop in the cost of roaming calls and sending text messages in Europe, more competition is needed to help push prices even lower.

The report said since the price caps were imposed in July 2009, the cost of roaming voice calls fell from .46 euros (56 cents) to .43 euros (52 cents) per minute and will go down to .39 euros (47 cents) as of Thursday. The commission said the cost of a text message also has dropped by 60 percent since July 2009 to .11 euros (13 cents). The prices wireless operators can charge each other for data roaming also is set to drop from 1 euro ($1.22) to .80 euros per megabyte (97 cents) on Thursday.

"The cost of using mobile phones or devices when abroad in the EU has fallen continuously since the adoption of the first roaming rules," Neelie Kroes, the commission's vice president for the digital agenda, said in a statement. "But three years since the rules came in, most operators propose retail prices that hover around the maximum legal caps. More competition on the EU roaming market would provide better choice and even better rates to consumers."

The commission is set to review the roaming rules by the end of June 2011 to determine whether they have met the EU's goal of achieving a single digital market.

The FCC launched a new initiative Tuesday aimed at improving how it "collects, uses and disseminates" data, an effort that will be led by the agency's first chief data officer.

Greg Elin, associate managing director of new media at the FCC, has been appointed to this new role and will lead a new "data team" charged with leading the initiative and made up of officials from the FCC's Wireline, Wireless and Media bureaus. The bureaus issued public notices Tuesday seeking comment on what current data collections should be eliminated, whether the FCC should seek new types of data to collect and how existing data collections can be improved.

"Smart policies depend on quality data, and public data should be accessible to the public in meaningful ways using modern digital tools," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said in a statement.

The head of a company aimed at ensuring the legitimacy of online pharmacies said Tuesday that the group that manages the Internet's address system is not doing enough to crack down on firms that sell Internet address registrations to Web sites that offer fake or stolen drugs without a prescription.

During a discussion on how to implement the recommendations included in the Obama administration's Joint Strategic Plan on Intellectual Property Enforcement, LegitScript President John Horton and others talked about the importance of getting those involved in the infrastructure of the Internet to help crack down on those who provide pirated or counterfeit products. Horton pointed in particular to the role that registrars, the firms that sell Internet domain name registrations, can play in protecting intellectual property.

Horton in particular called on the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which manages the Internet's domain name system, to crack down on registrars that violate their accreditation agreements with ICANN, which bars domain names from being used for illegal activities. Citing a recent report from an Internet security research company called KnujOn.com, Horton claimed some registrars have become safe havens for rogue online pharmacies. "Without their [registrars] sponsorship of the illicit transaction structure, the problem would not exist," the report said.

An ICANN spokesman did not have an immediate response to a request for comment.

Horton noted that Google, Microsoft and Yahoo now require that online pharmacies that want to advertise with them to be accredited by a program run by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy.

Horton said such cooperation "highlights the importance of continuing down that road in encouraging domain name registrars ..., ISPs [Internet service providers] and other companies and say look in all these areas related to intellectual property, in my area rogue Internet pharmacies, there is no reason to knowingly facilitate criminal activity including activity that violates intellectual property. Those are the choke points of the Internet."

Mark Esper, executive vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Global Intellectual Property Center, said he thinks search engines, ISPs and others "want to do the right thing." He added that it is up to the IP community and others to work with Internet intermediaries to find a "commercially reasonable way" to help curb Internet piracy and counterfeiting.

From this morning's Earlybird:

• "The Obama administration gave a major boost to the wireless industry Monday by announcing plans to make available for commercial use a huge swath of spectrum," Politico reports.

• "Google Inc. said it would change how Chinese users access its Internet search service after the Chinese government threatened earlier to revoke the company's license to provide online content in that country," the Wall Street Journal (subscription) reports.

• "The United States will aim to begin manned missions beyond the moon by 2025, with a planned trip to Mars the following decade, the White House announced Monday," CongressDailyAM (subscription) reports.

• "San Francisco, a city that banned the plastic bag, now has waded into the muddy territory of cellphone radiation, setting off a call to arms in the $153 billion wireless industry," the Washington Post reports.

The White House announced today it will review all federal information technology projects that are behind schedule or over budget and halt those deemed too risky, starting with all plans by U.S. agencies to modernize their financial systems. One of two memos released by OMB says federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra will have 30 days to issue guidance on the review process for the highest risk IT projects.

Agencies must submit improvement plans for projects that are behind schedule or have gone over budget, and "where serious problems are identified and cannot be corrected, further actions should be taken, including potential adjustments to fiscal 2012 agency budgets," the memo says.

The other OMB memo freezes all new task orders or procurement for financial system projects with $20 million or more in planned development or modernization
spending.

Read more about today's announcement on NextGov.com.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled today in Bilski v. Kappos that the business method central to the case cannot be patented -- but the narrow decision did not address the wider issue of whether other abstract ideas can be patented.

The litigation centers on efforts by inventors Bernie Bilski and Rand Warsaw, beginning in 1997, to patent a method for businesses to better manage their energy bills by factoring in weather-related price fluctuations. When the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rejected their request, they took the case to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which upheld the USPTO.

Concluding that only the so-called "machine-or-transformation test" should be used to determine the patent eligibility of a "process," the court said it applied the test and determined that the petitioners' claimed invention "was not patentable." Nevertheless, it emphasized that "there are reasons to doubt whether the test should be the sole criterion for determining the patentability of inventions in the Information Age."

The court further noted that today's decision is not a commentary on the "the patentability" of any particular invention. "The patent law faces a great challenge in striking the balance between protecting inventors and not granting monopolies over procedures that others would discover," it added.

"Today's decision preserves a delicate but important balance. It keeps the door closed to patenting mere abstract ideas, which many 'business method' patent applications have been," said Scott Bain, an attorney with the Software & Information Industry Association, in a statement. "But just as importantly, it affirms the continued viability of patenting useful software applications."

To read today's decision, click here

See CongressDaily's coverage (subscription required) of last November's oral arguments here

The Obama administration could move slowly to bring information technology jobs now performed by contractors back to agencies, say some federal spending analysts. But one industry group says it is less concerned with what the White House decides to do than about Congress mandating insourcing without clear guidelines.

Agencies will err on the side of keeping IT functions in-house until the Office of Management and Budget finalizes a new definition of work that must be performed by federal employees, said Ray Bjorklund, senior vice president and chief knowledge officer at FedSources, a market research firm.

On June 1, OMB stopped accepting public comments on proposed guidance that would direct departments to define work as inherently governmental when it is so intimately tied to the public interest that it must be performed by federal employees.

Continue reading on NextGov.com.

The White House announced today that President Obama has signed a "presidential memorandum" affirming that the federal government will seek to make 500 megahertz of government and commercial spectrum available over the next decade for wireless broadband. The goal is consistent with one of the key recommendations outlined in the FCC's national broadband plan, released in March.

In a media announcement, the White House repeated the FCC's concern that the nation faces a critical spectrum shortage.

"In recent years, the amount of information flowing over some wireless networks has grown at over 250 percent per year, with some estimates indicating that the next five years will see an increase in wireless data of between 20 and 45 times 2009 levels, reflecting the increasing use of smartphones, netbooks, and other wireless devices," the White House said.

"As the revolution in mobile broadband and related technologies unfolds, the demand for spectrum will continue to increase - leading to increasing fears of a spectrum crunch," it added.

"We appreciate FCC assurances that further reclamation of broadcast television spectrum will be completely voluntary, and we're convinced that America can have both the finest broadband and broadcasting system in the world without jeopardizing the future of free and local TV service," the National Association of Broadcasters responded in a statement.

"We also believe the first priority of Congress ought to be passage of spectrum inventory legislation that identifies fallow spectrum or companies that may be 'warehousing' the airwaves," the association said.

To read Obama's presidential proclamation, click here

This just in -- here's the list of telecom industry insiders who participated in the closed door meeting held earlier today by the House and Senate Commerce committees on prospects for telecommunications legislation. The next private stakeholder session will be Friday July 2:

AT&T, Tim McKone
Amazon, Emmett O'Keefe
CDT, David Sohn
Cisco, Jeff Campbell
CompTel, Jerry James
Consumers Union (CU), Joel Kelsey
CTIA, Jot Carpenter
CWA, Debbie Goldman
Dish, David Goodfriend
Free Press, Derek Turner
Free State Foundation, Randolph May
Google, Johanna Shelton
ITI, Dean Garfield
ITIF, Rob Atkinson
Level 3, John Ryan
MAP, Andy Schwartzman
Microsoft, Paula Boyd
NARUC, Brian O'Hara
NASUCA, Brenda Pennington
NCTA, James Assey
NTCA, Tom Wacker
OIC, Markham Erickson
PFF, Dan Horowitz
Phoenix Center, Larry Spiwak
Public Knowledge, Ernesto Falcon
Qwest, Melissa Newman
RCA, Tim Donovan
Sprint, Bill Barloon
TIA, Grant Seiffert
US Telecom, Walter McCormick
Verizon, Peter Davidson

House Energy and Commerce member Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Penn., tells C-SPAN in an upcoming interview that targeted telecommunications legislation is unlikely to emerge this year -- but if it does, House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., would champion it.

In the latest installment of "The Communicators" series, to air Saturday, Doyle doesn't mention Boucher by name, but refers to his title when asked who might offer a bill this year clarifying the FCC's authority over broadband. The analyst firm Stifel Nicolaus predicted in a recent advisory that such legislation could be introduced in the House before lawmakers break for the mid-term elections. While it said the chance of passage this year is slim, the development would set the stage for more action next year.

But Doyle, who was interviewed by CongressDaily for the C-SPAN segment, was skeptical any bill would emerge soon. "I fear that the clock is running out on us this year," he said, adding, "Many of us fear that we're not going to be able to get this done in this session." He emphasized that there are few days left on the legislative calendar and that Congress has "a lot of other issues in front of us."

Commerce member Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., who also was interviewed for the program, was equally bearish about the prospect of telecom legislation surfacing this year, noting that the 1996 update of the Communications Act took "six to eight years" to complete.

The telecom industry has been lobbying Congress for a narrow bill aimed at blocking a controversial FCC proposal to regulate broadband as a public utility and softening a planned expansion of rules designed to protect the Internet's openness. The House and Senate Commerce committees met today in private with industry lobbyists and executives, following similar private sessions this week at the FCC.

It took a decade, but the federal government issued new policies today governing how agencies can interact with the public online and collect information from visitors to their Websites with so-called "cookie" files and other technologies.

The aim is to enable agencies to continue expanding their online presence while adding safeguards to protect the privacy rights of citizens, Michael Fitzpatrick, an associate administer at OMB, told reporters on a conference call.

The new guidelines specify that agencies must ensure that third party sites and applications meet federal standards for privacy protections. The rules also set parameters for collecting personally identifiable information about online users, using social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, and participating in webinars or virtual town halls meetings.

Starting today, personal information only can be gathered about visitors to federal sites if those parties have actively "opted in" to the data collection. Agencies are prohibited from tracking a user's online activity on non-government Websites. "It's important that we set down a clear set of rules of the road so that agencies have confidence when they engage in this area that they are doing it the right way," Fitzpatrick said.

There are several tech and telecom-related events next week. Here are some of the highlights:

Monday:
The National eHealth Collaborative holds a conference call at 3 p.m., to discuss the National Health Information Network.

Tuesday:
The Health and Human Services Department's Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology holds a meeting at 8 a.m. to hear testimony from current users of technologies that enable consumer choice for sharing their information in health information exchanges.

The Coalition Against Counterfeiting and Piracy will hold a panel discussion at 9:30 a.m. on intellectual property enforcement and the impact of the national intellectual property enforcement strategy released by the White House intellectual property enforcement coordinator. Speakers include NBC Universal General Counsel Rick Cotton.

Wednesday:
The FCC and the Wireless Communications Association hold a two-day summit beginning at 10 a.m. on the national broadband plan's impact on broadband innovation and investment.

Thursday:
The Senate Commerce Committee's Protection, Product Safety, and Insurance Subcommittee will hold a hearing at 10 a.m. on protecting youth in an online world.

The Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office hold a meeting at 8:30 a.m. to discuss the relationship of copyright policy, creativity, and innovation in the Internet economy.

The FCC and the Wireless Communications Association host the second day beginning at 10 a.m. of their summit on the national broadband plan's impact on broadband innovation and investment.

A new study released Thursday from Georgetown University predicts that by 2018 a majority of U.S. jobs will require some post-secondary education, demand the United States is not ready to meet.

The report, conducted by Georgetown's Center on Education and the Workforce, predicted that 63 percent of all jobs will require some post-secondary education. Employers will demand 22 million new workers with postsecondary degrees and without major changes in U.S. education policy, the report claims the United States will fall short by three million workers.

Information services is among the top six industries that will require workers with the most education, the report said. It also said that 90 percent of science, technology, engineering and math fields will require post-secondary education.

"America needs more workers with college degrees, certificates and industry certifications," Anthony P. Carnevale, the center's director, said in a statement. "If we don't address this need now, millions of jobs could go offshore."

Compete America, a coalition of businesses, industry associations and education groups, said the report shows that while "domestic sources of talent are being expanded, U.S. employers must often rely on foreign-born scientists, engineers, researchers and other professionals to help maintain America's innovation leadership." The group favors immigration reform legislation that would allow foreigners who obtain advanced degrees from U.S. colleges to remain in the United States.

But with unemployment still hovering near 10 percent, groups like Compete America may have a tough sell persuading Americans and Congress on the need to allow more skilled foreign workers to come to the United States.

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., Thursday questioned three FCC members over why the commission has called for broadband speeds in rural areas well below the speed goals set for most other Americans.

During a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on expanding the Universal Service Fund to include support for broadband, Dorgan, a senior member of the panel, questioned FCC members Meredith Baker, Mignon Clyburn and Michael Copps over the recommendation included in the national broadband plan setting a goal of achieving broadband speeds of at least four megabits-per-second for rural areas, while setting a much higher goal of 100 megabits-per-second for 100 million Americans in other areas.

"Tell me, if I'm living in a rural area whether I think that's a fair approach," he asked. Dorgan and several other senators earlier this month wrote FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski questioning the two-tiered goals for broadband speeds.

Clyburn said the four-megabits speed was picked because it is the speed currently enjoyed by most U.S. broadband subscribers. Copps noted that the goal "is to get comparable service at comparable prices. Our focus is on getting broadband to folks at a level of other subscribers."

Baker added that the four-megabits goal for rural areas is just a recommendation and pledged to work with Congress on the issue.

Noting that many Alaskans still access the Internet at "dial-up" speeds, Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, said "I'll be very anxious to get four megabits."

The European Union's data protection authorities released an opinion Thursday declaring that online advertisers who seek to target ads at consumers by tracking their surfing habits must obtain consumer consent before engaging in such practices.

The opinion from the EU's Article 29 Data Protection Working Party, which is made up of data protection officials from the EU's member countries, said firms engaged in online behavioral advertising must abide by EU electronic privacy rules requiring online sites to obtain "informed" consent from users before installing tracking devices such as cookies on Internet users' computers.

"The European Data Protection Authorities call for simple and effective mechanisms for users to affirmatively give their consent for online behavioral advertising," according to an EU statement. "Equally simple and effective mechanisms should be established for users to withdraw their consent."

The opinion also noted that most of the widely used Internet browsers currently have a default setting accepting all cookies. "Not changing a default setting can not be considered, in most cases, as meaningful consent," the statement said.

The FTC announced Thursday that Twitter has settled charges that the social networking service failed to protect consumer privacy by providing inadequate security for user information.

The FTC alleged that Twitter's weak security controls allowed hackers to obtain administrative control of the social networking site and to access its user's accounts. The breach allowed the hackers to send out phony tweets from January through May 2009 pretending to be from on at least one occasion then-President-elect Barack Obama, as well as from Fox News and others. The one phony tweet pretending to be from Obama offered his 150,000 followers a chance to win $500 in free gasoline.

In the complaint, the FTC claimed that contrary to statements on its Web site, Twitter "has engaged in a number of practices that, taken together, failed to provide reasonable and appropriate security to: prevent unauthorized access to nonpublic user information and honor the privacy choices exercised by its users in designating certain tweets as nonpublic."

Using an automated password-guessing tool, the complaint alleged that hackers were able to gain administrative control of Twitter, after guessing the "weak, lower case common dictionary" administrative password used to gain access to Twitter's system. The hacker than used the password to reset numerous passwords, which were then posed on a Web site available to many others, the FTC said.

Under the terms of the settlement, Twitter will be prohibited for 20 years from misleading consumers about the extent to which it "maintains and protects the security, privacy, and confidentiality of nonpublic consumer information, including the measures it takes to prevent authorized access to information and honor the privacy choices made by consumers." The company also must establish and maintain a "comprehensive" security program, which will be assessed by a third party every other year for 10 years, the FTC said.

"When a company promises consumers that their personal information is secure, it must live up to that promise," FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection Director David Vladeck said in a statement.

In a blog post, Twitter noted that it moved quickly to address the security breaches when they occurred and informed its users about the problem. "Even before the agreement, we'd implemented many of the FTC's suggestions and the agreement formalizes our commitment to those security practices," the firm said in the post.

From this morning's Earlybird:

• "In a major victory for Google in its battle with media companies, a federal judge in New York on Wednesday threw out Viacom's $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit against Google's YouTube, the No. 1 Internet video-sharing site," the New York Times reports.

• "Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Joe Lieberman and ranking member Susan Collins plan to fight back today against criticism that their sweeping cybersecurity bill goes too far in allowing the government to shut down Internet services during emergencies," CongressDailyAM (subscription) reports.

YouTube scored a big legal victory Wednesday after a federal judge in New York sided with the video Internet site in a copyright infringement lawsuit filed by Viacom.

YouTube, which Google bought in 2006, argued it was protected from liability by a provision in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that provides a safe harbor from liability for copyright infringement if an Internet firm moves to take down illegal content once it is informed of it.

In the decision granting YouTube's motion for summary judgement, U.S. District Judge Louis Stanton noted that when YouTube "received
specific notice that a particular item infringed a copyright, they swiftly removed it. It is uncontroverted that all the clips in [the] suit are off the YouTube Web site, most having been removed in response to DMCA takedown notices."

In a YouTube blog post, Google Vice President and General Counsel Kent Walker said the decision "follows established judicial consensus that online services like YouTube are protected when they work cooperatively with copyright holders to help them manage their rights online. This is an important victory not just for us, but also for the billions of people around the world who use the Web to communicate and share experiences with each other."

Viacom alleged in its $1 billion lawsuit that YouTube's growth was fueled by the use of copyrighted material stolen from Viacom networks such as MTV and Comedy Central. In a statement last month on the case, Viacom Executive Vice President and General Counsel Michael Fricklas argued, "It is abundantly clear that YouTube and Google knew about copyright infringement on the YouTube site, encouraged it and profited from it."

In response to the decision, Public Knowledge Deputy Legal Director Sherwin Siy in a statement urged "those policymakers who look continually to make our copyright law more draconian and unbalanced will take this ruling to heart, and note that the current law is working quite well to protect content creators while taking into account the responsibilities of online service providers."

House Republican leaders will not strip Rep. Joe Barton, R-Tex., of his post as ranking member on the House Energy and Commerce Committee," CongressDaily reported.

Barton stood up and apologized Wednesday morning during a closed-door meeting to his House GOP colleagues for his controversial apology and remarks to British Petroleum at a hearing last week, when he described a trust fund to cover oil spill damages in the Gulf of Mexico a "$20 billion shakedown" by the White House.

"Mr. Barton apologized to the members for -- in his words -- his poor choice of words. He retracted his statement last week, and apologized. And I think the issue is closed," House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said.

A group of public interest groups, foreign lawmakers, academics and others released a statement Wednesday outlining what they describe as numerous flaws with a draft agreement aimed at curbing counterfeiting and piracy being negotiated by the Untied States and several countries.

The groups met last week in Washington to "analyze" the public text of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement released in April.

"ACTA is the predictably deficient product of a deeply flawed process," according to the statement signed by several members of the European Parliament as well as public interest groups from around the world such as the African Commons Project, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Electronic Frontiers Australia and Public Knowledge. "What started as a relatively simple proposal to coordinate customs enforcement has transformed into a sweeping and complex new international intellectual property and internet regulation with grave consequences for the global economy and governments' ability to promote and protect the public interest."

They outlined several problematic provisions pointing in particular to the language related to the Internet. The statement claims the agreement would encourage Internet service provides to "police the activities of Internet users by holding internet providers responsible for the actions of subscribers, conditioning safe harbors on adopting policing policies, and by requiring parties to encourage cooperation between service providers and rights holders." It also claims that it would encourage other countries to adopt "anti-circumvention" provisions similar to those included in the United States' Digital Millennium Copyright Act targeting technology that can override intellectual property protections.

It also outlined other problems with the draft claiming, for example, that it would "distort fundamental balances between the [IP] rights and interests of proprietors and users."

ACTA's supporters argue that several groups are overstating the bill's impact. During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, White House Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel reiterated the Obama administration's support for the agreement. Noting that there has been "a lot of misinformation about" ACTA, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, asked whether it would force changes to current U.S. law, a claim being made by ACTA critics.

"Let me say clearly that [the U.S. Trade Representative] and the administration do not see ACTA as a vehicle for changing existing U.S. law," Espinel said, adding that the agreement is seen as critical to increasing cooperating among international law enforcement officials and U.S. trading partners in combating counterfeiting and piracy.

AT&T, Google and Visa got what could be described as unintentional, unwanted attention Wednesday during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing when discussion turned to the growing problem of online piracy.

Describing piracy as possibly "the biggest transfer of wealth in history," Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., discussed how legitimate businesses can play a role in enabling online piracy. He went on to describe how with a few clicks of a mouse one can use a search engine such as Google to help find the Web sites where illegal content can be downloaded over the networks operated by an Internet service provider like AT&T and how illegal content can be bought using payment systems provided by credit card companies such as Visa.

"A lot of legitimate businesses are supporting online piracy," Whitehouse said in asking a panel of private sector representatives whether they are working with these businesses to help combat IP theft.

Warner Brothers Entertainment Chairman and CEO Barry Meyer said while the entertainment industry uses such tools as the notice-and-take-down provision in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to call on ISPs to remove illegal copyrighted material when they are informed about it, it is usually done after the fact when illegal material is already in the distribution stream. He added that "we need to look at" the role other legitimate businesses play in enabling piracy.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said he plans to work with White House, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and others on IP legislation that would crack down on those who distribute illegal content such as foreign-based Web sites.

During the same hearing, Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., asked Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel how to put measures in place that protect against piracy that will not impede the free flow of information on the Internet. Espinel said it is a priority for the Obama administration to preserve network neutrality while still cracking down on piracy.

Franken, a former comedian and writer on NBC's Saturday Night Live show, elicited several laughs in noting how protecting intellectual property affects him personally. "As I've said before, I was in show business ... Yes, I was. I know it's hard to believe considering what a productive member of this committee I am. .... I still get a $12 check every time they run 'Trading Places,'" Franken said in asking whether piracy effects decisions to make new movies.

The AFL-CIO's Paul Almeida agreed that it does and added that most people don't realize that actors get paid in two ways, up front when they perform in a movie or television show and later when a program or movie is shown in reruns. "An A-lister such as yourself probably does rather well," he added to a round of laughter when Franken thanked him with a big smile.

From this morning's Earlybird:

• "San Francisco on Tuesday became the first U.S. jurisdiction to respond to increased concerns over possible links between cellphone use and cancer, adopting a city ordinance requiring retailers to post the radiation levels of mobile phones," the Washington Post reports.

• "Just three years ago, Apple wasn't in the mobile-phone business at all," the Wall Street Journal reports. "Since then, its game-changing iPhone has become the most influential smartphone in the world."

The Obama administration signaled a new get-tough approach to intellectual property enforcement with the release today of the nation's first comprehensive plan for combating pirated goods. Drawing on input from at least six federal agencies, the U.S. Copyright Office, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and more than 1600 public comments, the plan features 33 recommendations for action.

The release of the 61-page document was applauded by a wide array of stakeholders, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Entertainment Software Association, Information Technology Industry Council, Motion Picture Association of America and Public Knowledge. To see the entire report, click here.

Watch for complete coverage in Wednesday's edition of CongressDaily

Information technology geeks, start your engines. The Obama administration on Friday plans to release the latest draft of its strategy for identification and authentication in cyberspace, Howard Schmidt, White House cybersecurity coordinator, said today.

The National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace, which is expected to recommend changes to privacy laws and set policies for verifying identities during online transactions, will be open for public comment with an aim toward getting Obama's final approval in the fall, Schmidt said at a cybersecurity conference organized by Symantec.

The goal is to strengthen protections against identity theft and online fraud, but to do so in a way that is not disruptive for businesses and consumers, Schmidt said. "We should not have to dramatically change the way we do business," he added.

Schmidt said the administration wants to work with the private sector to develop what he termed an "identity ecosystem."

"This strategy cannot exist in isolation. It's going to take all of us working together," he said.

From this morning's Earlybird:

• "The race to build a successor to Web search is heating up as a number of young companies seek to fill gaps they see with Google Inc.," the Wall Street Journal reports.

Chicago will be the site of a July 8 House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee field hearing on the impact of the proposed Comcast-NBCU merger. The announcement follows word that the FCC has scheduled a July 13 public forum in the Windy City on the transaction, being reviewed by the agency and Justice Department.

So why is the Second City the first destination for both the commission and Congress? Comcast is the dominant cable provider in the market, owns a regional sports network there and would own Chicago's NBC affiliate if the deal is approved. Plus, it's a short airplane hop away from DC.

Here are the vitals on the hearing:
"Comcast and NBC Universal: Who Benefits?" on Thursday, July 8, 2010, at 9:00 a.m. in room 2525 of the Everett Dirksen Federal Building, 219 South Dearborn Street, Chicago, Illinois.

Companies offering cloud services to government agencies will have to address federal security and data retention requirements, possibly making it difficult for small businesses to sell their services, according to a new report released by a law firm.

Contractors face legal risks when assisting federal agencies in implementing cloud computing, the practice of purchasing computing services that are stored and maintained by third-party providers, according to a white paper released by the law firm Reed Smith.

(Continue reading on NextGov.com)

Trent Lott, John Breaux, Jack Fields, Chip Pickering, Albert Wynn, Ron Klink, J.C. Watts, Vic Fazio, Don Nickles. What do these names have in common? Yes, they're all former senators and House members. And according to the Sunlight Foundation, they share something else: they're among the 276 former lawmakers and staffers retained by the telecom and cable industries to lobby Capitol Hill as Democrats pursue the first major rewrite of the nation's communications laws in fourteen years. Also being scooped up by the communications industry are former top aides to Senate Commerce Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller and Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., says the non-partisan group, whose mission is transparency in government.

See the entire Sunlight Foundation report here
And read CongressDaily's coverage of the lobbying battle here

As the first round of public comments on the proposed $30 billion union of Comcast and NBC Universal stream into the agency today, Comcast Executive VP David Cohen pledged that his company will take every step possible to assuage critics. "Comcast, GE, and NBCU stand ready, willing, and able to address legitimate concerns raised by commenters in the process," he said in a blog posting today.

"We've already made an unprecedented number of commitments ranging from our commitment to over-the-air broadcasting in this challenging economic environment to additional channels for independent programmers and additional news, public affairs, and children's programming," he wrote.

The pledge might not be enough to satisfy the staunchest critics, including a diverse coalition that sent the FCC and Justice Department a letter today expressing opposition to the merger. "It is essential that the Federal Communications Commission and Department of Justice consider the enormous ramifications this merger will have and the threat it poses to consumers, workers, the economy and the vibrancy of our media through diminished fair competition," the coalition wrote. Signatories included Bloomberg, Communications Workers of America, Free Press, Media Access Project and groups representing small cable and telecom operators.

(From Friday)

Agencies' practice of printing out electronic documents to archive, weak oversight and unclear guidance as to which e-mail messages should be saved have increased the likelihood that federal managers have destroyed important government information that should be stored for historical purposes, federal managers and records experts told lawmakers on Thursday.

Until recently, federal agencies typically printed digital documents to file as official records rather than use electronic archiving systems that save the files in their original form, professional archivists and federal IT executives told members of the House Oversight Information Policy, Census and National Archives Subcommittee. As e-mail use in government expanded during the past years, agencies have deleted or lost potentially important digital records, they said.

Continue reading on NextGov.com.

A series of new application programming interfaces - tools that facilitate interaction between datasets and other software programs - will make it easier for developers to play and interact with the content on Data.gov, the online repository of federal information and a cornerstone of the open government initiative.

But those are just the preliminary steps to establishing a self-running ecosystem that will convert raw government data into valuable content and interesting applications, a White House technology expert said last week at a government IT forum.

Continue reading on NextGov.com.

Congress takes a major step toward updating the Communications Act on Friday when staffers with the Senate and House Commerce panels conduct the first of several "stakeholder sessions" on telecommunications policy. The session will address the heated controversy over the FCC's authority to regulate broadband after a federal appeals court undermined the agency's jurisdiction.

While FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski wants to restore the commission's authority by treating broadband as a public utility, major telecom and cable providers are lobbying for a legislative fix that would circumvent his approach. Upcoming sessions will address spectrum policy and broadband deployment and adoption.

Continue reading here (subscription required).

Does Google think it's illegal for third parties to collect personal information from unsecured wireless networks? The company appears to have made conflicting statements on the matter.

Google maintains its own WiFi service in Mountain View, Calif., where it is based. The privacy policy for that service warns users to beware of illegal data collection. "Wireless Internet access presents challenges for protecting your information from illegal data interception by third parties," the policy states.

But Google's director of public policy, Pablo Chavez, sent a letter to lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce Committee last week stating that Google does not believe it violated U.S. law by when it engaged in what critics say was a similar activity.

The letter was sent in response to complaints that Google gathered sensitive data, such as Websites being visited, from WiFi networks while collecting images for its Street View technology.

"We believe it does not violate U.S. law to collect payload data from networks that are configured to be openly accessible (i.e., not secured by encryption and thus accessible by any user's device)," Chavez wrote. "We emphasize that being lawful and being the right thing to do are two different things, and that collecting payload data was a mistake for which we are profoundly sorry."

UPDATE -- A Google spokeswoman offered this explanation in response to questions: "It was a mistake for us to include code in our software that collected payload data from unencrypted networks, but we don't believe we broke any U.S. laws. The privacy policy for Google WiFi refers to both secure and unsecured networks, and it's legal to receive information from networks configured to be open to the public."

From this morning's Earlybird:

• "Comcast, the nation's biggest cable provider, has long played hardball with competitors and content providers," the New York Times reports. "Now that it is seeking control of NBC Universal in a $30 billion transaction, those competitors are piping up, expressing fears that Comcast will use its consolidated power to favor its own content and squeeze out rivals."

• "Congress takes a major step toward updating the Communications Act on Friday when staffers with the Senate and House Commerce panels conduct the first of several 'stakeholder sessions' on telecommunications policy," CongressDailyAM (subscription) reports. "The session will address the heated controversy over the FCC's authority to regulate broadband after a federal appeals court undermined the agency's jurisdiction."

• "Business and advocacy groups eagerly await the release of the government's first-ever strategic plan for intellectual property enforcement, as a Senate panel prepares to assess the performance of the post tasked with coordinating enforcement efforts and drawing up the plan," The Hill reports.

Older and wiser? Adult drivers are just as likely as teens to text while driving and significantly more likely to talk on cellphones while driving, a new report from the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project finds.

In a nationwide phone survey of 2,252 adults, 27 percent said they had texted on the road and 61 percent had chatted on mobile phones while driving. American teens are less distracted: 26 percent say they've texted behind the wheel and 43 percent have yakked on cellphones.

"Adults may be the ones sounding the alarm on the dangers of distracted driving, but they don't always set the best example themselves," Mary Madden, senior research specialist at Pew and co-author of the report, said in a statement.

Other interesting findings from the survey:

• Half of adults and teens say that while they were passengers they witnessed drivers texting
• 82 percent of American adults own cellphones and 58 percent send or receive texts

To see the whole report, go here

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has a penchant for evasive answers during news conferences. But on Thursday, he raised the bar with responses that bordered on the nonsensical -- all in the name of avoiding direct answers.

Ace telecom reporter Todd Shields of Bloomberg News asked the chairman a simple question, paraphrased here: Will there be a vote on officially adopting your tentative plan to regulate broadband as a public utility, and if so when?

Here's Genachowski's verbatim response:

"I'd say again that all of us are obliged to have an open mind and to tackle something like this step by step as the record comes in. As I mentioned, a number of promising activities, discussions, efforts have been cannibalized by this process. I think we all agree that an increase in the area of consensus, finding a framework of networks, would be desirable, and I'm going to continue to work on doing everything I can to cause that to happen."

In a follow-up, Shields asked about the timeframe for a proceeding adopted Thursday that will explore regulatory options for broadband.

Again, Genachowski's verbatim response:

"I haven't thought about timetables. The court decision [impacting the FCC's authority over broadband] has come out. We've started a process. We'll get comments. We'll work with all stakeholders. And of course we'll work with Congress. I really do think -- one of the things that I am pleased about is the growing consensus around goals. And to some of what you heard today about goals around broadband deployment. Goals around universal service. Goals around leading the world in broadband. An acknowledgement that we've got some problems we have to tackle. We have some issues we have to work on.

"To have the growing consensus around that is actually an accomplishment that I'm proud of. We will figure out a way to deal with the underlying legal framework. To me, the really hard issues are, once we agree on goals for the country around our global competitiveness, around broadband and the platform for economic growth, the platform for helping address health care and education, being able to work on tackling all those issues, substantively from a policy perspective, that's [unintelligible]. We made a lot of progress on the broadband plan. We need to and we will continue to move forward on this. And that's what will make a difference in the country."

There are several tech and telecom-related events next week. Here are some of the highlights:

Monday:
The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation holds a discussion at 9:30 a.m. on "Where Does the U.S. Really Stand in Broadband and Why?"

Tuesday:
The Senate Commerce Competitiveness, Innovation, and Export Promotion Subcommittee is holding a hearing at 2:30 p.m. on "Innovation in America: Opportunities and Obstacles."

Wednesday:
The Senate Judiciary Committee holds a 10 a.m. oversight hearing on the White House Office of the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator featuring the top official from that office Victoria Espinel.

The Atlantic hosts a two-day forum beginning at 1:30 p.m. on telecommunications, mobility, infrastructure and energy featuring keynote addresses from White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett and FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski.

Thursday:
The Atlantic hosts the second day of its forum on telecommunications, mobility, infrastructure and energy featuring an 8:30 am keynote speech by Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan.

The Senate Commerce Committee will hold a 10 a.m. hearing on transforming the universal service fund to provide support for broadband Internet service.

The House Education and Labor Healthy Families and Communities Subcommittee hosts a hearing at 10 a.m. on student cyber safety.

The House Judiciary Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties Subcommittee is holding a 10 a.m. hearing on potential reforms to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee holds a markup session at 2:30 p.m. and is expected to consider cybersecurity legislation.

Friday:
The FCC will be holding an engineering forum at 3 p.m. on the technical challenges of reallocating spectrum from broadcasters for other users.

From this morning's Earlybird:

• "U.S. mobile-phone chip maker Qualcomm Inc. is facing a new antitrust investigation by the European Commission, the company said," The Wall Street Journal (subscription) reports.

The Center for Democracy and Technology found a silver lining in the Supreme Court's ruling Thursday that a California police department's search of an officer's text messages was constitutional.

The Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Ontario, Calif. v. Quon that the Ontario Police Department's decision to read the text messages of officer Jeff Quon to determine if he was using his department-issued pager for personal use was reasonable and did not violate his constitutional rights.

CDT said the case was significant in that the high court chose not to weaken individual privacy rights. "The case could have had very far-reaching implications," CDT said in a news release.

Using a precedent set by a 1987 ruling, the court noted that government employees "generally retain their Fourth Amendment privacy rights, and it assumed that government employees may have a reasonable expectation of privacy even in communications they send during work hours on employer-issued devices," CDT said.

CDT Vice President of Public Policy Jim Dempsey said, "This ended up as a workplace privacy case for government employees. The message to government employers is that the courts will continue to scrutinize employers' actions for reasonableness, so supervisors have to be careful."

The Homeland Security Department likely will cancel a program to install sensors and cameras to detect illegal immigrants entering the United States from Mexico, and possibly pursue projects that are tailored to specific areas along the border, the head of the Secure Border Initiative told Congress Thursday

Mark Borkowski, executive director of SBInet at the Homeland Security Department, told a joint meeting of the House Subcommittee on Management, Investigations and Oversight, and the Subcommittee on Border, Maritime and Global Counterterrorism that the original plan to deploy the program along the entire border is unlikely, Nextgov.com reported.

SBInet is a network of sensors, cameras, radar and control towers that can detect individuals crossing into the United States from Mexico. It is the technology component of the department's overall Secure Border Initiative, which also includes fencing that will be erected along the U.S. southern and northwestern borders.

"Is that the right technology in the right places, or are there better mixes and matches? Can we come up with something that's a little more rational, that's tailored to each area of the border?" Borkowski said. "My expectation is that we would not end up with SBInet along the border. Already that doesn't look like a wise thing to do."

SBInet has been troubled almost from the moment DHS awarded the initial $2.5 billion contract to Boeing Co. in September 2006. Delays, cost overruns and performance issues mounted until January 2010, when Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano ordered an assessment of SBInet to determine if it should continue. Homeland Security is measuring the progress of the initial deployment of equipment to determine whether or not the department can expand the network along the entire U.S.-Mexican border, and if so, if it's worthwhile. DHS expects to have initial results of the assessment this month.

But even without the completion of the study, Borkowski's comments on Thursday indicate the likely end of the project. "First, we need to become convinced that the program is even viable," Borkowski said. "Second, we need to become convinced that if it is, it's the right way to spend money. Even if it works, is it worth it?" To read more, click here.

While they agree on the need for a nationwide interoperable broadband network for public safety, lawmakers, the FCC and public safety officials disagreed Thursday on how much spectrum would be needed for such a network, CongressDaily reported.

During a hearing, public safety officials, wireless industry representatives and others discussed a draft bill crafted by House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., that would implement recommendations from the FCC for construction of a national interoperable public safety broadband network.

The FCC in its national broadband plan recommended that the D-block of spectrum be auctioned to commercial bidders, and the proceeds be used to help build the public safety network. The FCC has directed that public safety be given 10 megahertz of spectrum for such a network.

The agency has estimated the cost of building this network at $12 billion to $16 billion over 10 years.

In addition to implementing these recommendations, Boucher's draft bill would authorize federal funds if the auction proceeds are not enough to build the public safety network.

The FCC released a white paper this week claiming that spectrum identified for public safety use would be sufficient to meet public safety needs. It also noted that any shortfalls could be addressed by an FCC proposal to give first responders priority access to commercial networks during emergencies.

But the National Governors Association, state and local public safety officials and some lawmakers say the FCC plan does not provide first responders with the spectrum they need. Instead, they have called for the FCC to simply reallocate the D-block for public safety use.

During questioning, New York City Police Department Deputy Chief Charles Dowd said, "Our analysis is that that 10 megahertz will not be sufficient on an emergency basis."

But James Barnett, chief of the FCC's Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, argued that the additional spectrum public safety officials would get from the D-block would still be insufficient during an emergency and that the FCC proposal allowing first responders priority access to roam on commercial networks would address this problem. To read more, click here. (Subscription required)

Reaction to the FCC's move Thursday to begin seeking comment on Chairman Julius Genachowski's proposal to reclassify some aspects of broadband as a telecommunications service is falling along predictable lines.

Broadband and telecommunications providers voiced deep concern with the move, saying it would stifle innovation and cost jobs. They say the issue should be dealt with by Congress not the FCC. The Democratic leaders of the House and Senate Commerce committees say they plan to craft legislation that would address questions in the FCC's authority over broadband created by an appeals court ruling in April. Genachowski offered his plan in response to the court ruling.

"Today's decision by the FCC is troubling and, in many respects, unsettling," AT&T's Senior Executive Vice President for External and Legislative Affairs Jim Cicconi said in a statement. "It will create investment uncertainty at a time when certainty is most needed. It will no doubt damage jobs in a period of far-too-high unemployment. It will also undermine the FCC's own goals for the national broadband plan."

Steve Largent, president and CEO of the wireless industry group CTIA, echoed this concern, saying ""We are disappointed that the commission continues to consider the application of monopoly-era rules for the U.S. mobile broadband ecosystem."

Taking the opposite view were some Internet and technology firms as well as public interest groups.

Google Washington Telecom and Media Counsel Richard Whitt said "broadband infrastructure is too important to be left outside of any oversight. Google, along with a dozen other tech companies, have written in support of Chairman Genachowski's proposed 'third way' as a straightforward way to protect consumers and the open Internet."

Computer and Communications Industry Association President Ed Black said, "Instead of succumbing to the paralysis a single court decision might have caused, the FCC is proceeding with a careful, measured, but proactive approach to protecting the public interest in universal and nondiscriminatory access to the public Internet."

Public Interest groups also applauded the move. Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn said the FCC's "simple, uncomplicated action today makes certain that the expert agency in telecommunications has the authority to carry out its mission."

While most GOP lawmakers and some Democrats have criticized the proposal, Senate Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., praised Genachowski's plan and pledged in a statement "to assist and supplement that process with a focus on those goals." Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said the FCC's move is "a step toward ensuring that consumers and innovators remain behind the wheel of the Internet, instead of the out-sized hands of a few big telecom companies."

As the Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee began discussion Thursday of a draft bill for building a national interoperable broadband network for public safety use, a few GOP lawmakers couldn't help but comment on an item being debated a mile away at the FCC's headquarters.

While the subcommittee held its hearing, the FCC was holding a public meeting on FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski's proposal to reclassify some aspects of broadband as a telecommunications service. This so-called "third-way" plan is aimed at providing the FCC with authority over broadband providers, which was put in doubt in the wake of an appeals court ruling last month. It "would enable continued leadership on communications policy and Internet freedom, while doing nothing [that] would leave the U.S. virtually alone in the world in not having tools to protect broadband competition and consumers and preserve Internet freedom and openness," Genachowski said.

The FCC voted Thursday 3-2 to begin collecting comments on Genachowski's proposal.

Meanwhile on Capitol Hill, some GOP member lamented the FCC's actions and called for a hearing on the proposal.

Energy and Commerce ranking member Joe Barton, R-Texas, said he was "deeply disturbed" by the FCC's actions, saying the move toward reclassifying some aspects of broadband as a telecommunications service under Title II of the Communications act is "misguided" and goes against the intent of Congress. A majority of members of Congress, including some Democrats, have signaled their opposition to Genachowski's plan.

Communications Subcommittee ranking member Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., said Genachowski's plan to "treat broadband similar to a public utility will hurt investment and hurt innovation."

And Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., expressed "disappointment in what is transpiring at the FCC as we speak." She added that this "short-sighted effort" will stifle innovation, cost jobs and result in the FCC's "takeover the Internet."

From this morning's Earlybird:

• "Apple Inc. said it took advance orders for more than 600,000 new iPhones world-wide on the first day the device became available, a flood of demand that caused difficulty processing orders at U.S. carrier AT&T Inc.," the Wall Street Journal reports.

No one ever said access to power in Washington comes cheap. Tech savvy Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., a Senate Commerce member who's up for reelection in 2014, is hosting a June 21 fundraiser at the swanky Hotel Monaco featuring Google Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt -- and the short-on-cash need not apply.

Just getting in the door for the reception as a "friend" will set you back $1,000, according to the invite. The "sponsor" level, which includes two reception tickets and one dinner ticket, requires shelling out $2,500. If you'd like to attend in style as a "co chair," your four reception tickets and one dinner seat will cost a cool 5K.

Also on the agenda are Norman Augustine, the former chairman and CEO of Martin Marietta and Lockheed Martin, and Martin Neil Bailey, a senior fellow in economics at the Brookings Institution and chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers during the Clinton administration.

The theme of the evening is "The Road to the Future: A Strategy of Growth and Competitiveness." For those attendees without dinner tickets, if you're still hungry afterwards and looking for a cheap bite, we recommend the handmade noodles and dumplings at nearby Chinatown Express (the place where the chef in the window turns noodle-making into performance art!).

The Justice Department's inspector general has agreed to begin new investigations of how the government is using domestic surveillance powers under the anti-terrorism law known as the USA PATRIOT Act.

Inspector General Glenn Fine told Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., in a letter this week that his office plans to review how the government is using its powers to get special court orders forcing businesses to turn over records and its powers to issue national security letters, which are demands for information without a court order.

Fine's office conducted previous investigations that found deficiencies in the use of those powers and recommended corrective actions.

"Among other issues, our review will assess the FBI's progress in responding to [inspector general] recommendations in prior reports," Fine wrote in the letter, which was dated June 15 but made public Wednesday. "In addition, we intend to examine the number of [national security letters] issued by the FBI from 2007 through 2009, and we will closely examine the automated system to generate and track NSLs that the FBI implemented to address the deficiencies identified in the [inspector general] reports."

The special court orders are called Section 215 orders and compel businesses to turn over records believed to be relevant to terrorism-related investigations. He said his review "will examine the number of Section 215 applications filed from 2007 through 2009, how the FBI is using the tool today and describe any reported improper or illegal uses of authority."

"Our review also will examine the progress the FBI has made in addressing recommendations contained in our prior reports that the FBI draft and implement minimization procedures specifically for information collected under Section 215 authority," he added.

Eight music publishers Wednesday filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against peer-to-peer file sharing service LimeWire.

EMI Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Universal Publishing Group, Warner/Chappell Music Inc. and other filed the lawsuit in New York federal district court. They claim that LimeWire has engaged in copyright infringement of their music on a "massive scale."

The lawsuit, which also named LimeWire CEO Mark Gorton and former Chief Operating Officer Greg Bildson, follows successful legal action against LimeWire by the Recording Industry Association of America. A federal judge last month ruled that LimeWire was responsible for copyright infringement that occurred as result of the use of its service.

"The pervasive online infringement facilitated by LimeWire and others like them has consequences for everyone in the music chain," National Music Publishers' Association President and CEO David Israelite said in a statement. "Operations like LimeWire must understand the songs that make their illegal venture lucrative don't appear out of thin air."

Key House lawmakers said Wednesday they plan to introduce legislation soon that mirrors a sweeping cybersecurity bill recently introduced in the Senate, which would give the government emergency authority to take critical information technology systems offline in dire situations when no other option is available.

House Homeland Security Committee ranking member Peter King, R-N.Y., and House Homeland Security Intelligence Subcommittee Chairwoman Jane Harman, D-Calif., said during a hearing they plan to sponsor the legislation. It will serve as a companion bill to one introduced last week by Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., ranking member Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Sen. Thomas Carper, D-Del.

Harman said she planned to introduce the bill by the end of the week, saying urgency is needed to address major gaps in the government's efforts to protect federal IT systems and those that run critical private infrastructure, such as electrical grids and telecommunications systems.

Lawmakers and witnesses painted a dire picture Wednesday of the consequences that will be faced if critical IT systems are disrupted or shut down by electronic attacks. They tried to draw an analogy to the Gulf Coast oil spill, saying it has raised public awareness of how a catastrophe can occur when infrastructure fails.

"We're going to have a meltdown of our critical national infrastructure," said Stewart Baker, former Homeland Security Department undersecretary for policy. "There's no doubt that we are not prepared to address a major cyber attack today."

Stewart testified along with Gregory Wilshusen, GAO's director of information technology, and Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Richard Skinner. They all said DHS needs the authority to compel other federal agencies to take action to protect their networks.

Indeed, Skinner released a report finding that a key DHS team responsible for preventing and responding to cybersecurity attacks lacks authority to ensure that federal agencies are properly protecting their information technology networks.

Security experts inside and outside government are becoming more convinced that the federal government must develop contracting programs that provide agencies with the ability to buy cybersecurity tools and services quickly to fend off ever-evolving and sophisticated threats, Nextgov.com reported.

There is no department that better illustrates the problem than the Defense Department. Currently, Defense takes an average of 81 months -- nearly seven years -- to develop an IT program from its initial funding to when it becomes operational, making systems four to five generations old by the time they are turned on, Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn said during a military symposium on cyberspace in May. At the meeting, he announced the formation of a task force that will look into speeding the IT acquisition process.

But such a long development and purchasing cycle makes it difficult to secure computer systems against cyber attacks that can develop almost instantaneously. "The challenge we have in the cyber world is that adversaries are acting on a faster time frame -- days or hours, not months or years," said Don Proctor, a senior vice president at Cisco and leader of its cybersecurity task force in the Office of the Chief Executive Officer.

The challenge government and industry face is finding a way to shrink the procurement window without sacrificing quality or imposing on fair competition.

Hackers often begin attacking federal IT systems well before agencies have time to buy the latest security control that can protect them. To help agencies buy the latest and greatest protection, the Senate included funding in its version of the fiscal 2011 Defense authorization bill that would explore innovative and flexible procurement models that Defense could follow to quickly acquire capabilities that would ward off serious threats that suddenly evolve.

The challenge extends to civilian agencies as well, said Pat Howard, chief information security officer at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. "The government could play an important role in giving particular security products a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval, saving individual agencies the time and effort of performing their own evaluation" of which security tools are the best suited for them, he said. To read more, click here.

Ten privacy and civil liberties groups urged Facebook Wednesday to take additional steps to fix lingering privacy issues they say still exist with the social networking site.

In an open letter Wednesday to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the groups said they are "glad to see that Facebook has taken steps in the past weeks to address some of its outstanding privacy problems. However, we are writing to urge you to continue to demonstrate your commitment to the principle of giving users control over how and with whom they share by taking" additional steps.

Among the other steps the groups urged Facebook to take include allowing users to decide which applications can access their personal Facebook information; allow users to control all the information they can share on Facebook including name, gender and profile picture; make it easier for users who want to quit Facebook to export their data to other social networking sites; and make instant personalization, a pilot program Facebook launched with partner sites that utilizes a Facebook user's data to target content to them, opt-in by default.

Facebook announced several changes last month in response to complaints from users and lawmakers about the site's privacy policies.

"By addressing these outstanding issues, Facebook can continue to demonstrate its commitment to user privacy," according to the letter signed by groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California; Center for Democracy and Technology; Center for Digital Democracy, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Under pressure from the FCC, the communications industry is lobbying Congress to pass narrowly focused legislation to blunt two contentious, game-changing proposals championed by Chairman Julius Genachowski, CongressDaily reported.

Highlighting the urgency of cutting a deal, sources said dominant players such as AT&T and Verizon are quietly indicating a willingness to compromise on a subject they had vowed never to cede ground: outlawing a two-tiered Internet.

Telecommunications and cable companies want to block the FCC chairman's plan to dramatically restructure how broadband is regulated and soften his proposed expansion of network neutrality rules designed to preserve the Internet's openness.

At the same time, they would arm the FCC with the power to proceed with other broadband initiatives.

The lobbying blitz is part of a two-pronged industry strategy: seek a better outcome in Congress while preparing to battle the agency in court. The effort follows an announcement in late May by the top Democrats on the House and Senate Commerce committees that they will pursue the first major update of the Communications Act in 14 years. To read more, click here. (Subscription required)

From this morning's Earlybird:

• "San Francisco moved a step closer Tuesday to becoming the first city in the nation to require that retailers post in their stores notices on the level of radiation emitted by the cell phones they offer," the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

A key government team responsible for preventing and responding to cybersecurity attacks lacks authority to ensure that federal agencies are properly protecting their information technology networks, has not developed a strategic plan laying out its goals and has insufficient staff to perform its missions, the Homeland Security Department's inspector general will tell Congress Thursday.

The U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team is "hindered" in "a number of ways" in its ability to effectively manage its cybersecurity responsibilities, according to testimony DHS IG Richard Skinner will give the House Homeland Security Committee, which was obtained by CongressDaily.

Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., and ranking member Susan Collins, R-Maine, seized on Skinner's findings during a hearing Tuesday to tout sweeping cybersecurity legislation they introduced last week.

Lieberman said he expects to mark up the bill next week. He said he believes Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., intends to merge competing cybersecurity bills into one piece of legislation and bring it to the Senate floor this year.

YouTube will be offering those Americans with a burning question for the White House about the Gulf oil spill disaster a chance to get answers from a top Obama administration official.

After President Obama's address to the nation Tuesday evening about the oil spill, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs will be fielding questions submitted by YouTube users who were also able to vote for the top questions.

"Now's your chance to hear the White House's response to your questions about what many are calling the worst man-made environmental disaster in U.S. history," YouTube's head of news and politics Steve Grove wrote in a blog post Tuesday.

The International Trade Commission Tuesday began two days of hearings on the economic impact on the United States of intellectual property rights infringement in China and the country's "indigenous innovation" policies.

The ITC hearings are aimed at gathering information for two reports requested by the Senate Finance Committee's leaders. Among the issues the lawmakers have asked the ITC to examine include concerns over indigenous innovation policies that the lawmakers and U.S. business groups say favor Chinese products over foreign products.

In testimony he is expected to give to the commission Wednesday, Jeremie Waterman, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's senior director for greater China, said, "The serious problems caused by China's innovation polices are compounded by the fact that these policies are being advanced in an overall environment of weak protection and enforcement of IP rights."

The House Ways and Means Committee also is holding a hearing on Wednesday on China's trade and industrial policies, which will examine China's indigenous innovation policies and its "failure to enforce intellectual property rights." Among those expected to testify include Business Software Alliance President and CEO Robert Holleyman and Information Technology Industry Council President and CEO Dean Garfield.

Rural Utilities Service Administrator Jonathan Adelstein said Tuesday that urban and rural areas should have the same speed of broadband service, CongressDaily reported.

The Obama administration's recent national broadband plan did not call for the same speed of broadband service in rural America, but Adelstein told the Broadband Breakfast Club, "I don't think there should be a differential in the speed of service."

Curtis Anderson, a former RUS official, said after the event he was disturbed that the FCC concluded it would be impractical to propose that broadband service be as fast in rural America as in cities but said he would differentiate between the speed needed for homes and that needed for institutions such as hospitals and schools. To read more, click here. (Subscription required).

U.S. tech industry officials Tuesday cheered reports that the WTO appears to have sided with the United States, Japan and Taiwan in a dispute with the European Union over tariffs on some information technology products.

The United States, Japan and Taiwan had argued that the duties imposed by the EU on flat-panel displays, multifunction printers and TV set-top boxes violated the WTO's Information Technology Agreement. A U.S. official confirmed previously published reports that the WTO interim report essentially sided with the United States, Japan and Taiwan on the issue. A final ruling is expected to be released in September.

The EU had argued that the products at issue were not covered by the ITA because they had been changed to add new functionalities to them.

Signatories to the ITA must agree to eliminate import duties on a wide range of IT products such as computers, wireless phones and printers.

Information Technology Industry Council Vice President for Global Policy John Neuffer said the EU's actions threatened to undermine the integrity of the ITA by trying to remove products from the agreement "simply because they had been improved and new functionalities" added to them.

Neuffer said he hoped the interim ruling would prod the EU to "renounce its passed flawed interpretation of the ITA and eliminate the duties at issue in the dispute and implement the ITA as it really should be implemented to spur growth and innovation globally."

Four Democratic senators are urging the leaders of the Senate Appropriations Committee to reject any attempts to block the FCC from using existing legal authority to regulate broadband Internet service.

In a letter Tuesday to Senate Appropriations Chairman Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, and ranking member Thad Cochran, R-Miss., the senators said they oppose proposals floated by Senate Commerce ranking member Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, and some House GOP appropriators to attach legislation to the FY11 spending bill that funds the FCC that would bar the commission from using any money to reclassify some aspects of broadband as a telecommunications service under Title II of the Communications Act.

The FCC Thursday is set to vote to seek comment on this "third way" proposal from FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and other approaches. Genachowski offered the proposal after the FCC's authority over broadband was put in doubt following a federal appeals court ruling in April. Hutchison, who also sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee, and other Republicans say Genachowski's proposal will stifle broadband investment and innovation.

"Seeking public comment on all available approaches is a reasonable and responsible way to move forward and we should give it increased clarity and definition through the legislative process. Congress should not block its consideration," Senate Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., and Sens. Maria Cantwell, Tom Udall, D-N.M., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., wrote.

"The Communications Act articulates and gives life to the idea that our communications networks should be open, accessible, ubiquitous, and affordable. Those values did not die with the invention of the Internet nor did the commission's responsibility to act on them," they added.

Kerry and other leaders of the House and Senate Commerce committees have said they will work together to craft legislation that would address the legal uncertainty over broadband created by the appeals court decision.

After striking out at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a coalition of movie industry groups is calling on Congress to include a ban on futures exchanges based on motion picture box office receipts in the final version of financial regulatory overhaul legislation.

In April, the CFTC approved the online movie futures exchanges proposed by Media Derivatives and Cantor Futures Exchange but had yet to back any contracts that would be traded on them.

Despite strong opposition from the movie industry and several lawmakers, the CFTC on a 3-2 vote late Monday approved the first contract for the movie futures exchange proposed by Media Derivatives. A separate proposal from Cantor for a movie futures exchange contract is still pending before the CFTC.

In a statement, the commission said it approved the contract because it did not violate the Commodity Exchange Act. The CFTC did, however, require Media Derivatives to make "specific modifications ... to guard against manipulation or any other abusive conduct in the trading of any contract by knowledgeable and informed sources within the studio or distribution company."

Supporters argue that such exchanges will help the movie industry by expanding the depth and number of financing sources available to the industry and offers an opportunity to hedge against the high risk of making movies.

In the wake of the decision, the Directors Guild of America, the Independent Film and Television Alliance, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, the Motion Picture Association of America, and the National Association of Theatre Owners are urging House and Senate negotiators to include the ban on movie futures exchanges already included in the Senate bill in the final version of the financial regulatory overhaul legislation.

"These proposed contracts fail to demonstrate that they serve the public purpose futures contracts should serve, they are highly susceptible to potential manipulation, and pose real possible economic damage to an industry that employs over 2.4 million men and women working in virtually every state in the country," MPAA President Bob Pisano said in a statement for the coalition of movie groups. "We support banning them as the Senate bill does, and hope that the final bill approved by Congress and signed by President Obama retains the prohibition."

Get a move on, FCC! That's the underlying message in a letter that Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., and Senate Commerce member Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, sent to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski Monday urging the agency to open up the so-called white space to wireless broadband providers. "The commission has already taken the first step but we encourage you to move expeditiously to conclude the TV white spaces proceeding--as recommended in the national broadband plan," they wrote.

The senators noted that it has been two years since the agency approved a plan to harness these unused television frequencies, which have exceptional propagation characteristics for the next-generation of high-speed Internet connectivity. While the lawmakers said they understand that delays have been caused by the tedious process of ensuring there won't be interference with digital TV signals and wireless microphones, they still want action. "We request that you prioritize action on white spaces and urge the FCC to adhere to its broadband action agenda and complete final rules in the third quarter of 2010," they wrote.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers on Thursday unveiled yet another bill that would help the government respond to a major cybersecurity attack.

The Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act, sponsored by Sens. Tom Carper, D-Del., Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, includes key provisions that would mandate continuous monitoring and create a new cyber office at the White House. But the bill also includes some provisions to improve the recruitment and retention of the cybersecurity workforce.

Continue reading on NextGov.com

Mobile computing will outpace desktop technology in the next 10 years if challenges to access, security and interoperability are overcome, according to a study from the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project released on Friday.

The report, a survey of nearly 900 Internet and technology experts, found that 72 percent of respondents believed technology users will conduct business using shared mobile platforms and smart phone applications rather than desktop computing. Easy access to information and the growing use of mobile devices will be key drivers of this trend, they said.

Continue reading on NextGov.com.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski inches a step closer to the "nuclear option" for telecommunications and cable companies -- regulating broadband as a public utility -- with a Thursday vote on his proposal for reasserting the agency's jurisdiction over the technology.

The move comes in the wake of a federal appeals court decision that undercut the FCC's ability to regulate broadband providers. The "notice of inquiry" will gather public feedback on Genachowski's proposal and other options for governing high-speed Internet service following the judicial ruling.

Continue reading (subscription required)

From this morning's Earlybird:

• "Apple is famous for its veil of secrecy around the new iPads and iPhones. But Sen. John Rockefeller and others in Congress wonder whether the company has more than technological innovations to hide," Politico reports. "When Apple didn't participate in an April hearing on children's online privacy, the West Virginia Democrat who chairs the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, gave voice to his suspicions."

• "Senate and House lawmakers will summon current and former government officials for hearings this week to examine how best to protect critical federal and private information technology networks from escalating cyber attacks," CongressDailyAM (subscription) reports.

• "Candidates in some top political races are raising big sums of money using software that taps donors' social networks, an endeavor that lets the donors track their friends' donations with the zeal a fantasy baseball team owner uses to monitor player statistics," USA Today reports.

Leaders from Broadband for America expressed grave concern Friday over FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski's controversial plan to treat broadband as a public utility. More regulation will cause uncertainty in the marketplace and imperil the growth of the Internet and the jobs that broadband deployment fosters, the group warned.

"Our message is that regulators must diligently avoid taking any steps that might undermine industry's incentives to invest," said Hal Singer, managing director of Navigant Economics, during a conference call. Harold Ford, honorary co-chair of Broadband for America and former Democratic congressman from Tennessee, said a heavy federal hand could deter the private sector from expanding broadband to areas that need it most.

Internet providers have been pushing back since the FCC recently announced its intention to regulate broadband under a stricter regime currently used for telephone services under Title II of the Communications Act. According to Genachowski, the new requirements for broadband would be much less robust than the rules for phone service providers.

Since 2005, investment in broadband technologies averaged $30 billion per year, according to a report authored by Singer and Robert Crandall of the Brookings Institution. The growth will contract severely if there is too much federal regulation, Singer warned.

Trying to head off mounting criticism in Congress, Google told key House lawmakers this week it is "profoundly sorry" it collected data from WiFi networks and never used any of the information.

Google has said it accidentally collected so-called payload data from unencrypted WiFi networks while photographing neighborhoods for its "Street View" mapping program.

"The payload data has never been used in any Google product or service, nor do we intend to use it," Pablo Chavez, Google's director of public policy, wrote in a letter Wednesday to House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman and ranking member Joe Barton, as well as Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass.

"In fact, based on our current investigation, we are aware of only two instances when any Google engineer even viewed the payload data," the letter added.

"As soon as we became aware of this problem, we grounded our Street View cars and segregated the payload data on our network," the letter stated. "We then removed the data from the Google network so that it is inaccessible to anyone other than those responsible for securing the data, and we continue to take steps to safeguard payload data."

But Google said it has not been able to determine the number of WiFi networks for which data had been collected.

Seventy-seven. That's the latest tally of Democrats in both chambers on record opposing FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski's controversial proposal to subject broadband to stricter regulation. On Thursday, Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., became the first Democrat in the upper chamber to ask the chairman to drop his initiative. "I urge the commission . . . to work with the chairs of the appropriate congressional committees to develop [a] suitable and clear statute that will help us achieve our national broadband goals," she wrote in a missive to Genachowski. Also this week, a May 28 letter surfaced from Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., to the FCC chief expressing the same sentiment. Late last month, 74 House Democrats, and separately former House Energy and Commerce Chairman John Dingell, D-Mich., informed Genachowski they reject his approach.

Despite the developments, the chairman has his party's support where he most needs it: from his two Democratic colleagues on the five-member commission, Democratic leaders in both chambers and the heads of the powerful House and Senate Commerce committees. Amid widespread GOP and telecom industry opposition, Genachowski has scheduled a Thursday vote on a proceeding to gather feedback about his proposal and other options for regulating broadband in the wake of a court decision that gutted the FCC's authority over the technology.

There are several tech and telecom-related events next week. Here are some of the highlights:

Tuesday:
Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., and other lawmakers are among those scheduled to appear at a congressional briefing at 11 a.m. on health information technology and its potential benefits.

Analysis Group, McKool Smith, and Georgetown University are holding a panel discussion at 8:30 a.m. on patent reform issues. Among those scheduled to appear include retired Federal Circuit Chief Judge Paul Michel, former U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director Jon Dudas, and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will hold a 2:30 p.m. hearing on cybersecurity legislation introduced by Chairman Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., and others.

Wednesday:
Americans for Technology Leadership hosts a panel discussion at 3:30 p.m. on consumer and policy issues around cloud computing. Speakers include Homeland Security Chief Privacy Officer Mary Ellen Callahan.

Thursday:
The FCC will hold a public meeting at 10:30 a.m. on regulatory proposals related to the commission's authority over broadband.

The House Energy and Commerce Communications, Technology, and the Internet Subcommittee is holding a 10 a.m. hearing on a discussion draft that would authorize funding for the construction and maintenance of a nationwide, interoperable public safety broadband network.

Microsoft along with the National Consumers League, the American Bankers Association, and others will be launching at 10 a.m. a new Internet Fraud Alert program.

From this morning's Earlybird:

• Dell "said Thursday that it is in talks with the" Securities and Exchange Commission "to settle allegations related to its accounting and other issues, including aspects of its commercial relationship with Intel," the Wall Street Journal (subscription) reports. The computer maker "said it will take a $100 million reserve to cover expected costs of settling the case."

• "The Federal Bureau of Investigation has opened an investigation into a possible security breach of AT&T Inc.'s website that exposed the email addresses of some owners of Apple Inc. iPad devices," the Wall Street Journal also reports.

Business and public interest groups Thursday praised the latest congressional effort aimed at bolstering cybersecurity but voiced concern with provisions such as one that would give the federal government emergency powers.

The latest bill was introduced by Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., ranking member Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del. It would give the government emergency authority to take information technology systems offline in dire situations when no other option is available. It also would create a national center for cybersecurity and communications within the Homeland Security Department.

"Our economic security, our national security, our public safety are all at risk as a result from new kinds of enemies with new kinds of names like cyber warriors, cyber spies, cyber terrorists and cyber criminals," Lieberman said at a news conference Thursday. "And that risk may be as serious to our homeland security as anything we face today."

TechAmerica President Phil Bond praised the senators for "grappling with one of the most serious threats of our time and for acknowledging the industry's indispensible role in the effort to strengthen cybersecurity. Good intentions aside, America's technology companies are concerned about the unintended consequences that would result from the legislation's regulatory approach."

He added in a news release that the bill could undermine private sector efforts to find innovative ways to protect their networks.

Center for Democracy and Technology President Leslie Harris praised privacy protections in the bill covering Internet communications. CDT, however, questioned the scope of the emergency powers granted to the president under the bill. ""The authors of the bill have signaled their intent to give the president no Internet 'kill switch' authority," Harris said in a statement. "We look forward to working with them to make sure the bill clearly reflects that intention."

The FCC's top security official voiced concern Thursday with revelations this week that a security breach of AT&T's network exposed the personal data of 114,000 iPad users, saying it highlights the need for better cybersecurity.

"This breach underscores the need for robust cyber security," FCC Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau Chief Jamie Barnett said in a statement. "The FCC's cyber security mission is to ensure that broadband networks are safe and secure for the consumers and businesses that depend on them."

He added that his office is working with providers to prevent future data breaches, which he said violate "consumer privacy and undermine trust in America's communications infrastructure."

AT&T acknowledged the breach earlier this week, saying in a statement that the only information revealed was the e-mail addresses attached to each iPad. The company said it had fixed the problem by Tuesday.

"We take customer privacy very seriously and while we have fixed this problem, we apologize to our customers who were impacted," according to the AT&T statement.

House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., says while he would still like to finish a privacy bill this year, he is crafting a measure that can attract bipartisan support and addresses the issue "properly."

Boucher gave stakeholders until last Friday to submit comments on his draft privacy legislation. He told Tech Daily Dose Wednesday that most business groups believe the legislation is "too strict," while privacy advocates and public interest groups say it doesn't go far enough to protect consumer privacy. Given this, Boucher said he believes he has a "very centrist proposal."

Still, he said he would make some modifications to the bill based on the feedback but couldn't say when he might introduce the measure or mark it up. Boucher said he would be including lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in meetings with stakeholders.

"It's important to do it well rather than quickly," he said, adding that many complex proposals often take more than one congressional session to complete.

Energy and Commerce ranking member Joe Barton, R-Texas, said earlier Wednesday that he has told Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., that privacy is an area that he wants to work with Democrats.

A bipartisan group of 40 House members are voicing support for congressional efforts to block proposals to establish online futures exchanges based on motion picture box office receipts.

In a letter Tuesday to House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson, D-Minn., and ranking member Frank Lucas, R-Okla., the lawmakers echoed concerns raised by the movie industry, which staunchly opposes the proposed movie exchanges. The Agriculture Committee has jurisdiction over the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which is weighing the proposals.

The CFTC has already approved applications from Media Derivatives and Cantor Futures Exchange to be contract markets, the first step in their bid to create movie futures exchanges. The CFTC, however, has yet to approve futures contracts that would be traded on such exchanges.

Supporters argue that such exchanges will assist the industry by expanding the depth and number of financing sources available to the industry and offer an opportunity to hedge against the high risk of making movies.

But critics including the group of House lawmakers led by Foreign Affairs Chairman Howard Berman, D-Calif., and Small Business ranking member Sam Graves, R-Mo., argue that the movie industry has no interest in using such exchanges to hedge against risk and added that the "opportunities for abuse and manipulation are enormous."

They noted that despite such concerns, CFTC's authority to block such exchanges is "prohibited by statute. We therefore offer our support for efforts to address this problem." A provision blocking the movie exchanges was included in the Senate's version of financial regulatory overhaul legislation. House and Senate lawmakers are currently negotiating a final version of the legislation.

Republicans in both chambers are seeking to block FCC funding from being used to implement controversial regulatory proposals being championed by the agency's Democratic chairman, Julius Genachowski, CongressDaily reported.

During a Wednesday hearing before the House Financial Services Appropriations Subcommittee, Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, vowed to amend the agency's FY11 request of $352.5 million with language barring the commission from regulating the Internet. Culberson insisted the FCC no longer can exert authority over broadband after a federal appeals court in April invalidated its existing framework for regulation.

The measure would torpedo at least two controversial proposals being championed by Genachowski: a restructuring of how broadband is regulated and an expansion of guidelines designed to preserve Internet openness.

CongressDaily reported Wednesday that Senate Commerce ranking member Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, who also sits on the Appropriations Committee, is quietly contemplating a similar appropriations bill rider. The saber-rattling comes as the FCC has scheduled a June 17 vote on options for restoring the agency's authority over broadband, including Genachowski's preferred approach: treating the technology as a public utility. To read more, click here. (Subscription required)

Facebook and the National PTA announced a partnership Thursday aimed at promoting safe and responsible Internet surfing for children, parents and teachers.

The social networking site and the National PTA say they will work together to develop a "comprehensive" program aimed at tackling such issues as Internet security, cyber bullying and responsible online citizenship. The National PTA will promote the program through its 24,000 local PTA groups nationwide, while Facebook also will raise awareness about the effort among its users and through its safety center.

From this morning's Earlybird:

• "AT&T Inc. acknowledged Wednesday that a security hole in its website had exposed iPad users' email addresses, a breach that highlights how corporations still have problems protecting private information," the Wall Street Journal (subscription) reports.

• "Key senators are expected to introduce sweeping legislation today aimed at protecting critical federal and private computer networks," CongressDailyAM (subscription) reports.

The Senate Commerce Committee approved three bills Wednesday aimed at curbing texting and cell phone use while driving, loud television commercials and misleading online marketing tactics.

The bills include legislation offered by Senate Commerce Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller, D-W.Va., that would bar companies from automatically passing a consumer's credit or debit card information to a third-party online partner and also require such third-party merchants to clearly disclose the terms of their offers to consumers.

The bill emerged out of the committee's investigation of a practice known as data-pass marketing. The committee's probe focused on firms that misleadingly get consumers to sign up for discount membership clubs and other services as part of other online transactions with online retail sites, which pass on consumer credit and debit card information to these third-party firms.

"Web sites will no longer be able to trick consumers into signing up for unwanted services and membership clubs," Rockefeller said during the panel's markup session.

The committee also approved legislation, introduced by Rockefeller, that aims to crack down on drivers who text or use their cell phones while driving. The bill would create a grant program for states that enact laws to prohibit texting and hand-held cell phone use while driving. "I think it is most appropriate for the states to handle this issue and devise laws that best meet their particular needs," Commerce ranking member Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, who cosponsored the bill, said.

A third bill, offered by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., approved by the panel would require the FCC within one year of the bill's enactment to adopt a regulation limiting the volume of television advertisements in accordance with recommended technical standards. It includes a provision that would allow the FCC to grant waivers for up to two years to broadcasters, cable operators or other video programming providers that show that complying with the rules would pose "a financial hardship."

The House passed a similar bill in December.

Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., said given that the television industry has been moving "in the right direction" to address the problem itself, he doesn't believe "government intervention is necessary at this time."

The committee also adopted substitute amendments to all three bills.

Two key House lawmakers say the federal government's push to move agencies to cloud computing suffers from a lack of clear standards and uncertain costs, Nextgov.com reported.

In a letter Wednesday to General Services Administration Chief Information Officer Casey Coleman, Reps. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., and Diane Watson, D-Calif., expressed concern about the absence of clear policies, procedures and standards to support the federal government's initiative to move many agency networks to platforms operated by contractors, or in the cloud.

"While there are compelling arguments for the federal government to utilize cloud computing, the technology is still a relatively new concept," wrote Towns, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Watson, chairwoman of the panle's Government Management, Organization and Procurement Subcommittee. "As such, there are a number of questions and concerns about the federal government's use of cloud computing."

In September 2009, the Obama administration launched the Federal Cloud Computing Initiative, including Apps.gov, an online storefront for agencies to browse and purchase cloud-based IT services, in an effort to cut IT costs, speed the adoption of new systems and increase government-wide adoption of cloud technologies. To read more, click here.

House Energy and Commerce ranking member Joe Barton, R-Texas, said Wednesday that he has told the panel's chairman that he can work with Democrats on privacy legislation but he doesn't believe a draft measure offered by Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., goes far enough.

In an interview, Barton, co-chairman of the Congressional Privacy Caucus, said he met Tuesday with Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman and told him privacy is an issue on which he could work with the California Democrat. He added that Boucher and subcommittee ranking member Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., have "put together a good draft to get people's attention." Boucher gave stakeholders in the debate until last Friday to submit comments on the draft privacy measure.

Barton noted that business groups believe it goes too far and privacy groups say it doesn't go far enough. Barton said the Boucher draft must go further to protect consumer privacy, adding that he wants to give "as much control to individuals as possible."

While saying he would like to see privacy legislation enacted this year, he said Boucher, Waxman and senior Energy and Commerce member Edward Markey, D-Mass., need to reach consensus on privacy legislation. Markey is the other House co-chairman of the privacy caucus.

Asked about concerns he and Markey have raised about the privacy implications of Google's disclosure last month that it "mistakenly" collected personal data from unsecured Wi-Fi networks, Barton described the incident as "ridiculous." He added that it "just shows we need strict [privacy] protections" for consumers.

Firms that have been on opposite sides of the network neutrality debate announced Wednesday that they are teaming up to launch a Broadband Internet Technical Advisory Group aimed at developing consensus on broadband network management practices.

The group is aimed at attempting to find some common ground on the technical issues related to the ongoing debate over network neutrality, the principle that broadband providers should not discriminate against Internet content. The FCC's efforts to implement net neutrality rules were put in doubt in April when a federal appeals court found that the commission overstepped its authority over broadband when it challenged Comcast's network management practices.

Leading the group is the respected engineer Dale Hatfield, a former FCC chief technologist who now serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Colorado and as the executive director of the school's Silicon Flatirons Center.

The group said in a statement that it hopes to address specific technical issues to "minimize related policy disputes" and serve as a "sounding board for new ideas and network management practices." It also aims to promote outreach within the Internet technical community, identify "best practices" by broadband providers; and provide technical guidance.

"The TAG will function as a neutral, expert technical forum and promote a greater consensus around technical practices within the Internet community," Hatfield said in the statement.

Describing the group as a "work in progress," Google Telecom and Media Counsel Richard Whitt said in a blog post that "the purpose of the BITAG is not to replace the oversight and enforcement authority of the FCC or any other government body. Rather, we hope the BITAG can bring together some of the smartest technical minds in this space to provide some useful guidance to policymakers and Internet stakeholders alike."

AT&T, which has often clashed with Google, also is participating in the group. AT&T Assistant Vice President of Public Policy Brent Olson said in a blog post that "this effort demonstrates the interdependence of all players and their mutual interest in and desire for innovation in the internet platform."

Other participants include Cisco Systems, Comcast, EchoStar Corp., Intel, Level 3 Communications, Microsoft, Time Warner Cable and Verizon.

A new report released Wednesday by the Agriculture Department's Rural Utilities Service shows the first rounds of broadband grants provided under funding included in last year's economic stimulus package will produce 5,000 immediate jobs.

RUS received $2.5 billion of the $7.2 billion included in the stimulus for broadband access and adoption, while the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration received the rest.

So far, the more than $1 billion in funding awarded by RUS has been used to fund 68 projects in 31 states. During a conference call with reporters, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the projects will bring broadband service to an estimated 529,249 households, 92,754 businesses and 3,332 so-called "anchor" institutions, such as schools, hospitals, libraries and other community facilities.

In addition to the 5,000 immediate jobs funded by the RUS broadband funding, Vilsack said the investments will help create more long-term jobs helping to maintain and repair the broadband networks and interacting with customers of those services. He added that the RUS will be announcing new broadband projects funded by the remaining stimulus funds throughout the summer.

"The infrastructure to allow rural America to grow and prosper includes access to broadband," Vilsack said. He noted that only half of rural Americans subscribe to broadband and most of the 14 million who lack access to broadband are in rural America.

Some lawmakers, particularly Republicans, have questioned whether the broadband program is wasting taxpayer money by funding broadband projects in areas where commercial providers already provide service. RUS and NTIA officials have staunchly denied such claims.

From this morning's Earlybird:

• "Senate Commerce ranking member Kay Bailey Hutchison," R-Texas, "may offer an appropriations bill rider designed to block the" Federal Communications Commission "from regulating broadband as a public utility," CongressDailyAM (subscription) reports.

Senate Democratic leaders unveiled Tuesday a tweaked $140 billion package of unemployment benefits, tax breaks, physician payments and other items that Democratic Conference Vice Chairman Charles Schumer of New York said could get 60 votes and pass by early next week.

But the changes could upset the apple cart in the House, which labored mightily before the Memorial Day recess to whittle the cost and appease moderates by stripping $24 billion in state Medicaid funding -- which the Senate amendment would return.

And so far it has failed to address concerns raised by technology companies and other large multinational firms about tax increases on their international operations.

Schumer said the measure will "prevent the outsourcing of U.S. jobs" by closing international tax loopholes, while "shoring up jobs in the U.S." by extending tax incentives like the research and development tax credit, which would be renewed for a year under the legislation.

Ralph Hellman, the Information Technology Industry Council's senior vice president of government relations, said the Senate Democratic proposal does little to address his and other tech groups concerns with the international tax provisions. Hellman and other tech industry officials say while they are pleased that lawmakers have included an extension of the R&D tax credit in the bill, they say the international tax offsets included in the measure will make U.S. firms less competitive.

"Before lawmakers consider modifying the international tax rules, we ask that they seriously consider the potential impact of those changes," TechAmerica Senior Vice President Joshua S. Lamel said in a letter late last month to members of Congress. "Provisions of the bill, such as the extension of the R&D credit, promote U.S. job creation and investment; however, the benefits are mitigated by the tax increases included in H.R. 4213."

Last week, Hellman said he was hoping the Senate would find other offsets to pay for the bill or exempt the R&D tax credit from pay-go requirements, which require new tax breaks or government spending to be offset by provisions that raise revenues.

A new poll shows that a large majority of consumers are concerned about being tracked on the Internet and favor a proposal from privacy groups to create a "do not track list."

The survey, commissioned by the tech and telecom industry research group Precursor LLC, found that 81 percent of those polled said they were "somewhat" or "very" concerned about companies tracking their Web surfing habits and using that information for advertising, while 88 percent said it is "unfair" for companies to do such tracking without an Internet user's permission.

The survey, conducted by Zogby International, polled 2,111 adults this past Friday-Monday and had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points.

Among the poll's other significant findings include that 91 percent said it is "unfair" when Internet firms relax their privacy policies after having collected personal information from users.

The poll also found that 88 percent of those surveyed said consumers should have the same privacy protections online as they now have offline and 79 percent said they would favor implementation of a "do not track" list similar to the "do not call" list, which bars telemarketers from contacting consumers on this list. This same amount favored requiring law enforcement to obtain a warrant before tracking a suspect's Web activities.

Several privacy groups in 2007 called on the FTC to implement a "do not track" list that would allow consumers to block servers on the list from tracking their online activities. FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz has said such a proposal would likely require legislation to implement.

Groups such as the Interactive Advertising Bureau have said a do-not-track list would be difficult to implement and may actually prove to be less helpful for consumers by making it more difficult for firms to target relevant ads to them.

Precursor President Scott Cleland said he believes the survey shows that "online privacy legislation is a no-brainer winner with the American public." House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., is currently weighing stakeholder input on draft privacy legislation he plans to introduce. The poll, however, did not survey users on provisions in the Boucher bill.

Despite the support for specific privacy proposals, only 49 percent of those surveyed said "government regulators should play a larger role in protecting online consumer privacy," an idea opposed by 36 percent of respondents.

The FTC Tuesday said it has rejected a proposal by the Internet safety education group iSAFE to operate a self-regulatory program that would allow firms that sign up for it to comply with the provisions of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.

The FTC voted 5-0 to reject iSAFE's application to operate a "safe harbor" program in compliance with COPPA, which requires Web sites aimed at children under 13 to obtain parental consent before collecting information from them.

In a letter to iSAFE Chief Operations Officer Dennis Shaw, the FTC said the California-based group failed to meet the FTC's requirements for a safe harbor program. These include that the program provide "substantially similar" requirements to those included in the COPPA rule, provide an independent mechanism for assessing participants compliance with the safe harbor program and provide "effective" incentives for participants' compliance with the program.

The FTC noted that iSAFE's "proposed safe harbor guidelines do not meet the rule's requirements because they would result in lesser protections for children than provided by COPPA itself."

An iSAFE representative could not be reached for comment.

The Army wants to develop a massive virtual world populated by 10,000 avatars that are managed by artificial intelligence and operate over a 32-mile square simulated landscape, Nextgov.com reported.

Officials at the Army Research, Development and Engineering Command's Simulation and Technology Training Center said they want a systems integrator to put together a virtual world that includes soldiers, vehicles and weapons that can move around a landscape built from Defense Department digital terrain elevation data.

The Simulation and Technology Training Center also said in its request for information that it wants to incorporate technologies used in massively multiplayer online games and offer classified and unclassified versions.

The Army is looking for the contractor to create avatars that have the same kind of Web 2.0 communications found in the real world, including chat, instant messaging and links to smart phones.

Based on the requirements, the Army is likely to choose a closed world open only to its personnel, and not a public world such as Second Life, which is open to everyone, said Dan Frank, managing partner for Three Wire Systems , a virtual world developer in Vienna, Va., which placed first in this year's Federal Virtual World Challenge. To read more, click here.

The European Union's highest court Tuesday upheld a EU law that set caps on the cost that its citizens have to pay to use their mobile phones in another European country.

The Court of Justice upheld the EU law imposing limits on the prices that mobile operators can charge users for roaming in other EU countries, saying it was justified because it was aimed at ensuring the "functioning of the EU's internal market," according to a Court of Justice statement.

"Today's court ruling is significant because it confirms the commission's view that legislation of this type was necessary and that the EU was entitled to impose limits on the prices charged by mobile operators for roaming calls in the interest of the EU's Single Market," the European Commission, the EU's regulatory arm, said in a news release.

The commission notes that since the adoption of the roaming regulation in June 2007, prices for mobile phone calls outside of a user's home country have dropped by up to 70 percent since 2005, while the cost of text messaging also has fallen by 60 percent on average.

"We are disappointed with the decision expressed today by the European Court of Justice and feel that this does not reflect the best interests of the European market. We will of course continue to comply with European regulations in force," according to a spokesman for France Telecom's Orange subsidiary, one of the four European telecom providers that challenged the EU's authority to set roaming rates.

From this morning's Earlybird:

• "Three senior Homeland Security officials in the Bush administration say a federal plan for reallocating the nation's limited airwaves could endanger public safety by limiting the ability of first responders to communicate during crises like 9/11," The Hill reports.

• "Apple debuted a thinner iPhone with a sharper screen, high-definition moviemaking and video-chatting capability -- but one that, in the United States, remains locked to AT&T Wireless," the Washington Post reports.

• "The District of Columbia's top technology official is scrapping his predecessor's contest that challenges software developers to find meaningful uses for government data," The Hill reports. "The 'Apps for Democracy' contest was the brainchild of current federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra during his tenure as D.C.'s chief technology officer."

Google finds itself under fire from a new direction over last month's revelation that it collected information from unsecured Wi-Fi networks: the states.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is the latest official to voice concerns with the Wi-Fi incident. He called on Google Monday in a letter to tell his office how much and what kind of information it collected, when and where it did so, why it collected the data, where the data is stored and other information. Blumenthal's demands follow a request last week from Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster for similar information about any Wi-Fi data that Google may have collected from the Show Me state's residents.

Google acknowledged last month that vehicles that photograph pictures for the company's Street View service and mistakenly collected data from unsecured Wi-Fi networks. Several members of Congress have called on the FTC to investigate the matter, while EU and Canadian officials also have voiced concern over the incident.

"Drive-by data sweeps of unsecured Wi-Fi networks here would be deeply disturbing, a potentially impermissible, pernicious invasion of privacy," Blumenthal said in a statement. "Consumers and businesses rightly expect Google to respect their privacy, not invade it by vacuuming up confidential data."

Blumenthal, who is running to succeed retiring Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., said his office will evaluate whether Google broke any state privacy laws.

Google has said the Wi-Fi incident was a mistake, has stopped its Street View cars from collecting Wi-Fi data and pledged to cooperate with officials seeking information about the incident.

During today's House Judiciary Committee field hearing in Los Angeles on the proposed Comcast-NBC Universal merger, minority critics accused Comcast, the nation's largest cable television operator, of doing little to promote media diversity. "We find it unacceptable that none of the 250-plus channels that are offered on the Comcast platform are 100 percent African American-owned and widely distributed on their nationwide platform," complained Stanley Washington, president and CEO of the National Coalition of African American Owned Media, in prepared remarks. The dearth of black-owned channels is particularly disturbing, he said, because Comcast has "millions of African American subscribers that contribute approximately 40 percent, or $15 billion, of Comcast's annual revenue."

Alex Nogales, president and CEO of the National Hispanic Media Coalition, echoed the criticism with this claim: "NBC has a relatively fair record with the diversity initiatives I mentioned earlier. Comcast does not." His group has battled Comcast for years in an effort to convince it to carry more Spanish-language channels in markets with sizable Hispanic populations.

Aiming to deflate the criticism, Paula Madison, executive VP of diversity at NBCU, revealed in written testimony that if federal regulators approve the transaction, the new company would take several steps to promote diversity. This would include the
addition of three networks "substantially" owned by minorities and the creation of four "advisory councils" to guide the company's diversity initiatives, she wrote. Some witnesses came to Comcast's defense, including William Jenkins, chairman and CEO of Hip Hop On Demand, who described the company as very supportive of his entrepreneurial efforts, and those of other blacks seeking to launch channels, and as having a solid record of adding minorities to its management ranks.

No one said Democratic-led efforts to revamp the nation's communications laws would be easy. Just two weeks after four prominent Democrats announced ambitious plans to spearhead the first major update in fourteen years, the initial bill in a series that could see action -- privacy legislation being drafted in the House -- is mired in controversy.

Following the announcement, House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., told CongressDaily his draft could be ripe for early consideration.

"One of the subjects on which we'll be having stakeholder meetings will be the need for privacy rights for Internet users," he said.

But on Friday, a coalition of 10 privacy advocates sent Boucher and House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee ranking member Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., who is collaborating on the bill, a five-page letter (PDF) detailing a laundry list of complaints.

Read the full story (subscription required).

Former Republican FCC Chairman and Comcast arch-enemy Kevin Martin is attending today's House Judiciary Committee field hearing in Los Angeles on the proposed $30 billion union of Comcast and NBC Universal, but won't testify. That's the official word from the committee, which inadvertently sent out a witness list moments ago that included Martin as a participant.

Here's the committee announcement (with Martin's name removed by us):

WHEN:
Monday, June 7, 2010, 9:00 a.m. PST

WHERE:
California Science Center, Loker Conference Center, 700 Exposition Park Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90037

WHO:
Panel I
• Mr. Will Griffin, President and COO, Hip Hop On Demand
• Mr. Samuel Kang, Managing Attorney, The Greenlining Institute
• Mr. Alfred Liggins, President & Chief Executive Officer, Radio One
• Ms. Paula Madison, Executive Vice President, Diversity, NBC Universal
• Mr. Alex Nogales, President and CEO, National Hispanic Media Coalition
• Mr. Allen Hammond, Phil and Bobbie Sanfilippo Professor of Law, Santa Clara University School of Law
• Mr. Stanley E. Washington, Chairman and CEO, National Coalition of African American Owned Media
• Mr. Jim Weitkamp, Vice President, Communications Workers of America
Panel II
• Ms. Suzanne de Passe, CO-Chair, de Passe Jones Entertainment
• Ms. Kathryn F. Galan, Executive Director, National Association of Latino Independent Producers
• Dr. Darnell Hunt, Professor of Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles
• Mr. Frank Washington, Chairman and CEO, Tower of Babel LLC

Wired's Threat Level blog reported late Sunday that Army officials have arrested a U.S. intelligence analyst who allegedly leaked military and State Department documents to Wikileaks, a whistleblower Web site.

Continue reading on Nextgov.com.

Brace for the telecommunications storm. Four influential Democrats announced plans late last month to reopen the 1934 Communications Act for the first time in 14 years, immediately igniting a frenzy in Washington. The last time Congress ventured down this path, in 2006, an open battle ensued over a massive bill that swelled with pet provisions; the struggle finally ended amid rancor and finger-pointing. Along the way, telecom firms contributed more than $6 million to lawmakers and spent nearly $110 million on lobbying during the 2006 election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Telecom experts say the stage is being set for a legislative encore that could stretch well beyond 2011 and is poised to bring back the political daggers and big-money lobbying. "This basically will pick up where Congress left off in 2006," a veteran lobbyist said.

Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., chairman of the Energy and Commerce panel's Communications, Technology, and the Internet Subcommittee, recently told National Journal that the law needs to be "modernized," because it hasn't kept pace with advancements since its last update in 1996. "It's a major undertaking and worthy, I think, of a bipartisan and bicameral focus, at least early on," he said.

Not long ago, companies such as AT&T and Verizon would have recoiled at the notion of Congress intervening in a substantive way on policy matters. Now they're applauding it. With the Federal Communications Commission pursuing proposals that many carriers reject as "interventionist," shifting the focus to Congress is viewed as "not a bad bet," explained Rob Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank.

To read the rest of this article, please visit the National Journal website -- subscription required).

From this morning's Earlybird:

• "Consumer Watchdog continues to push its case that Google Inc.'s behavior necessitates antitrust scrutiny, releasing a report that alleges that the company is abusing its dominance in online search to direct users to its own services," the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

• "The impact of the proposed $30 billion merger of Comcast and NBC Universal on program diversity will be the focus of a field hearing today in Los Angeles hosted by the House Judiciary Committee," CongressDailyAM (subscription) reports.

• "U.S. consumers are venting frustration over the BP oil spill, demonstrating at gas stations and corporate offices, drumming up support on Facebook and waging a mock public relations campaign on Twitter," the Washington Post reports.

Monday:
The House Judiciary Committee will be holding a field hearing at 9 a.m. in Los Angeles on Comcast's proposed acquisition of NBC Universal.

The Consumer Federation of America holds a noon conference call briefing to discuss a new report examining the "usefulness of consumer complaint Web sites."

Tuesday:
The Brookings Institution is holding a forum on U.S. science and technology innovation beginning at 8:30 a.m. The event will feature federal Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra, federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra, House Science and Technology Chairman Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., and others.

The National Archives holds a discussion at 11 a.m. on social media tools.

Wednesday:
The Senate Judiciary Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights Subcommittee will hold a 2 p.m. hearing on antitrust enforcement featuring FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz and Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust Christine Varney.

Thursday:
The House Energy and Commerce Communications, Technology and the Internet Subcommittee will hold a 10 a.m. hearing on the H.R. 3101, The Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act Of 2009, which is aimed at ensuring those with disabilities have access to new Internet-based and video technologies.

The House Science and Technology's Research and Science Education Subcommittee holds a hearing at 10 a.m. on how to improve the process of transferring technology from the research lab to the marketplace.

The New America Foundation holds a discussion at 3:30 p.m. on support for community and municipal broadband.

There's an alien on the Texas-Mexican border, but this one's completely legal -- and backed by the U.S. government. The Department of Homeland Security began flying an unmanned aerial drone over the border this week, the first time this sort of advanced technology has been deployed in the region. The "Predator B" is providing support to U.S. Customs and Border Protection to help interdict drug smugglers and detect people trying to enter the United States illegally.

Key Texas lawmakers have been clamoring for years to have an unmanned drone assist in border security operations, but until now, the move had been delayed by bureaucratic wrangling between DHS and the Federal Aviation Administration. Drone flights along the southern border had been limited to regions in Arizona and New Mexico.

"The beginning of UAV flights over the west Texas portion of our border with Mexico marks an important advancement for border security in our state," said Senate Commerce ranking member Kay Bailey Hutchison in a statement. "We are working hard to make round the clock aerial surveillance the standard for all 2,000 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border."

House Homeland Security Border Subcommittee Chairman Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, also helped broker the agreement between DHS and FAA. "By putting eyes in the sky along the Rio Grande, we will gather real-time intelligence on the ground to augment the good work of federal, state and local law enforcement on the border," he said in a release.

Customs and Border Protection now operates five Predator B drones, which have flown more than 1,500 hours and contributed to the seizure of more than 15,000 pounds of marijuana and the apprehension of more than 4,000 illegal aliens, according to the agency.

Need to raise campaign cash online or build a social network fast but don't know how? The 800-pound guerilla of the software sector, Microsoft, has teamed with ElectionMall.com to provide one-stop technology shopping for running and winning political campaigns, from presidential races to school board elections. The partnership was announced Friday at the annual Personal Democracy Forum Conference in New York. The new service, "Campaign Cloud," could translate into less time making decisions about how best to leverage technology and more time on winning, the companies said.

"From running and staffing a campaign to engaging voters, today's candidates expect technologies that enhance their efforts in powerful ways," said Curt Kolcun, a vice president at Microsoft, in a statement. Raising money, getting out the vote, managing a donor base and promoting awareness are some of the features the new platform will provide. The announcement is the latest effort by Microsoft to expand its line up of "Campaign Ready" offerings.

From this morning's Earlybird and around the web:

• Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, "the most vocal net neutrality supporter among GOP senators, has joined her colleagues in urging" Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski "not to change the regulatory classification of broadband service," The Hill reports.

• General Keith Alexander, commander of the new U.S. Cyber Command, said Thursday that the Department of Defense's networks repel approximately 6 million attacks daily, The Hill also reports.

• "AT&T Inc.'s shift toward charging wireless subscribers based on the amount of data they use is expected to be an important test of consumer behavior in the technology industry's fastest-growing arena," the Wall Street Journal reports.

• "Google Inc. agreed to provide European regulators with personal data it said it mistakenly collected through wireless networks, a move the Internet company had previously resisted," the Wall Street Journal (subscription) also reports.

• "It seems the issue of Facebook privacy has gained enough currency to earn itself a place in a TV attack ad in the race for California attorney general -- almost certainly the first Facebook-oriented TV ad in U.S. politics," the Los Angeles Times reports.

• "Sprint Nextel Corp. began selling the first phone in the U.S. based on a next-generation wireless technology, an advance that may usher in devices with high- definition video capabilities and fast downloads," Bloomberg News reports.

• Qik of Redwood City, California, is providing software for this phone that will allow it to support two-way video-chat, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

Democratic FCC regulator Mignon Clyburn emerged Thursday as the critical third vote for Chairman Julius Genachowski's controversial proposal to regulate broadband as a public utility, delivering a potentially major blow to the telecommunications industry.

In a forceful speech to the Media Institute, Clyburn sought to debunk the hysteria from telecom carriers and lawmakers in both parties over the proposed change, insisting it is necessary to ensure the agency has a strong legal foundation to proceed with several pending initiatives. More than half of all congressional members, including 75 House Democrats, have urged Genachowski to drop his plan, warning it would amount to burdensome regulation when the nation needs to encourage investment in high-speed Internet infrastructure.

The chairman has been under relentless criticism since his announcement last month that he wants to shift broadband from its current designation as a lightly regulated data service to a heavily regulated information offering. Genachowski insists the move is necessary to restore the agency's ability to regulate the technology after a federal appeals court in April effectively gutted its current authority.

Clyburn and Democratic Commissioner Michael Copps, who already has expressed his support, would provide Genachowski with the two additional votes needed to win approval before the five-member agency. While Clyburn had previously indicated she was open to Genachowski's proposal, her comments today put her solidly in his camp.

For now, the FCC has scheduled a June 17 vote on a "notice of inquiry" designed to gather additional information on Genachowski's plan and other regulatory options for broadband.

"The chairman is proposing that we reestablish the authority that the commission and most observers thought we had," Clyburn said, adding, "The proposal is not a power grab, my friends." She said the judicial decision represented a "tectonic shift" for the agency.

(CongressDaily will have full coverage on its website Friday morning of Clyburn's speech).

Civil liberties groups filed a lawsuit against the federal government Thursday seeking the release of documents showing how a controversial electronic spying law is being implemented and whether the communications of U.S. citizens are improperly being monitored.

Congress passed the law in 2008 to rewrite the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act after the government disclosed that it had been using warrantless wiretaps dating back to 2001. The lawsuit was filed in New York by the American Civil Liberties Union and New York Civil Liberties Union against the office of the director of national intelligence, Justice Department, National Security Agency and Defense Department.

"Despite being in operation for nearly two years, the American public is largely in the dark about how the controversial FISA Amendments Act has been implemented in practice," said Melissa Goodman, staff attorney with the ACLU's National Security Project. "The public has a right to know how the government is using, and possibly abusing, an intrusive surveillance power that implicates the privacy and speech rights of all U.S. citizens and residents."

Under the law, the government does not need warrants in order to monitor the communications of foreigners that pass through or are stored by U.S. communications hubs. The government also does not need warrants to monitor the communications of U.S. citizens who come into contact with foreign terrorist suspects, as long as that citizen is not the target of surveillance and his or her communications are minimized. Individual warrants are still needed if the target of surveillance is a U.S. citizen or an American traveling abroad.

The law also created a process to give telecommunications companies immunity for helping the government with warrantless wiretapping.

The lawsuit seeks to enforce a November 2009 Freedom of Information Act request for records related to the government's interpretation and implementation of the law and what safeguards are in place to prevent abuses, the ACLU said.

"The government has not yet released any of the records requested, and today's lawsuit asks a federal judge to order it to do so," the ACLU added. "The lawsuit alleges that the requested records are needed to enable informed public debate about whether the [law] - which expires in 2012 - should be repealed, amended or extended."

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Thursday unveiled a new initiative aimed at giving patent applicants more control over how quickly their applications will be processed.

The new proposal calls for creating a three-track process from which applicants can choose to decide how quickly they want their applications processed. Track one aims to give applicants "prioritized examination" for a fee, which will be set to pay for the cost of expediting the examination and be high enough to deter inventors from using it for all their patent applications, PTO Director David Kappos said in a conference call. The PTO aims to finalize examinations of applications handled under track one within a year.

Track two is the agency's traditional examination timeline. On average, it took the PTO nearly 35 months in fiscal year 2009 to complete examination of a patent, according to the PTO. Kappos, however, said he expects the process will reduce patent times overall and the agency hopes to lower track two pendency rates to 20 months.

Track three would allow applicants to delay examination for up to 30 months. A delay might give the applicant time to market their product or improve on the technology, Kappos said. He said the fee for this track would be reduced and might be separated out so an applicant could first pay an application fee and then a search fee before deciding whether to move forward with a full examination.

The new initiative will allow the "patent application community to help the PTO to order our workflow so we can be more effective in processing patent applications that are the most important" to the applicants, Kappos said.

When asked if the PTO is concerned that most applicants will choose track one, Kappos said: "I see no risk we'll get overwhelmed with uptake (in track one)...If we calibrate the fees right, we will get an application demographic that is spread out nicely across tracks one, two and three."

A key Commerce Department official said Thursday that the Obama administration is facing challenges conducting an inventory of government-controlled spectrum designed to free up airwaves for commercial mobile use, CongressDaily reported.

During a speech at a Public Knowledge conference, Larry Strickling, administrator of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration, said the cost of clearing some bands occupied by federal agencies, and the technical complexities involved, have emerged as potential impediments.

Asked if the administration would meet the FCC's goal of identifying an additional 500 megahertz of wireless spectrum over the next decade to meet skyrocketing demand, Strickling said: "It's not going to be accomplished by clearing bands and reallocating for exclusive use by other providers." To read, more click here. (Subscription required)

Google's YouTube online video service has launched a new campaign toolkit aimed at helping politicians make the most of online video and other technologies to reach voters.

YouTube's You Choose 2010 Campaign Toolkit allows politicians to create their own YouTube channel where they can upload longer videos and brand their own YouTube channel page, according to a Google blog post Thursday. It also gives them access to YouTube Insight, which measures the performance of their videos and provides data on who is watching them.

In addition, the toolkit provides links to paid YouTube services including tools that help customers promote their videos and provide an overlay to a video that allows viewers to link to a Web site such as fundraising page.

Facebook is also working hard to promote the social networking site as a key political tool for politicians with the launch Thursday of its Facebook U.S. politics page and other recent pages such as its new Congress page.

The Health and Human Services Thursday announced a new round of grants aimed at helping health centers adopt electronic health records and other technologies aimed at improving efficiency, quality and patient safety.

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the department will provide $83.9 million for 45 grants to support new and enhanced electronic health record implementation projects and other health IT "innovation" projects at health centers that serve low-income and uninsured patients. The funding comes from the $2 billion included in the 2009 economic stimulus package to expand health care services to these populations through the Health Resources and Services Administration's health center program.

"These funds will help safety net providers acquire state-of-the-art health information technology systems as they work to provide quality health care to millions of people in need," Health Resources and Services Administration Administrator Mary Wakefield said in a statement.

The grants range from a $3 million award to Family Health Centers of San Diego to a $567,000 grant to the Alaska Primary Care Association in Anchorage.

The FCC's review of the proposed $30 billion merger of Comcast and NBC Universal will include a "public forum" about the transaction in Chicago on July 13, the commission announced Thursday.

The session will be held at Northwestern University Law School and will provide an opportunity for the public to ask questions. The House Judiciary Committee has scheduled a field hearing on the deal for Monday in Los Angeles.

Democratic FCC regulators Mignon Clyburn and Michael Copps, along with House Judiciary member Maxine Waters, D-Calif., had urged FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski to hold hearings on the merger outside Washington to allow for a wider range of feedback on the merger's impact.

The commission and the Justice Department's Antitrust Division are reviewing the deal for its public-interest and antitrust implications, respectively.

The Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee will hold a hearing next week on enforcement of antitrust laws, a forum that might provide renewed scrutiny of some recent and controversial tech and telecom-related mergers.

FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz and Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust Christine Varney are scheduled to appear at the Wednesday hearing. A spokeswoman for Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman Herb Kohl, D-Wis., said he will likely raise some high-tech and Internet issues at the hearing, although details of the hearing's expected topics are still under development.

Kohl has raised antitrust concerns about some of the most recent tech and telecom mergers including Comcast's proposed acquisition of NBC Universal and Google's purchase of mobile ad provider AdMob. The FTC's approval last month of the Google-AdMob deal was sharply criticized by Google critics and some public interest groups who say the merger will stifle competition in the emerging mobile ad market.

Kohl wrote FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and Varney last week outlining his concerns with the Comcast-NBCU deal and recommending conditions he think should be imposed if regulators approve the merger.

"Comcast's proposed acquisition of NBC has the potential for profound and far-reaching effects in many markets, including competition in the [pay television] market, the access of non-affiliated programmers to a quarter of the nation's homes through the Comcast cable system, and the ability of a nascent and potentially promising new form of competition - video over the Internet - to thrive," Kohl said in the letter.

Just in time for the 2010 elections, Facebook Thursday launched a new politics page that will highlight all the things that politicians are doing on the social networking site.

"The page will highlight how politicians, elected officials, and political campaigns across the United States are using Facebook to better connect with citizens," the firm said in a news release.

Many politicians use the site to reach out to constituents. President Obama has more than 8 million Facebook fans, while former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin provides regular posts on her thoughts for her 1.5 million fans.

Facebook's new site includes a link to help users register to vote. The social networking site notes that it helped register nearly 60,000 people to vote for the 2008 election. Its also has been an important voter outreach tool with about 1 million people using Facebook to remind friends to vote or to find their polling place in 2008.

But as Facebook works to remind users of its benefits, CEO Mark Zuckerberg is still trying to defend the site's privacy policies. During an interview Wednesday evening at this week's D: All Things Digital conference near Los Angeles, Zuckerberg once again flatly denied charges that the company is cavalier with users' private information.

"There have been misperceptions that say were trying to make all this information open and that's completely false," he said.

From this morning's Earlybird:

• AP reports on how the State Department is using social media tools to expand its diplomatic outreach in addition to traditional channels.

A Comcast executive says he sees little evidence that cable viewers will give up their subscriptions and move online to watch television programming, the Hill reports.

Children's advocates, technology and legal experts, Web site operators and others struggled Wednesday to determine how best to adapt a 2000 rule implementing a law aimed at protecting children's privacy to the growing list of devices people are using to get online.

Among the issues experts at the FTC's first workshop on updating its rule implementing the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act grappled with was whether the rule should be expanded to include new types of devices that people use to get online such as mobile phones and interactive gaming systems and whether the definition of personally identifiable information should be expanded.

The law requires Web sites aimed at children under 13 or those with "actual knowledge" that they are collecting personally identifiable information from children under 13 to obtain parental consent before collecting personal information from them.

During the panel's first session, wireless and gaming industry representatives, legal and technology experts and a children's advocate debated what constitutes being online and what types of devices are children now using to get online. One area where there was some disagreement over was the use of gaming devices to get online.

Center for Democracy and Technology General Counsel John Morris questioned whether the maker of a device should be subject to COPPA just because it can be used by a child to get online. "I'm a little uncomfortable that a maker of a device that has Wi-Fi capability has a COPPA obligation," he said.

But Georgetown University law professor Angela Campbell argued that if such devices can be used to allow children under the age of 13 to engage in chat discussions in which they may reveal personal information to others who use such gaming devices than the moderator of such chat rooms should be subject to COPPA's requirements.

The FTC announced Wednesday that it has reached a settlement with a Florida firm that bars the firm from selling spyware to customers and showing them how to secretly install the software on computers without the computer owner's knowledge.

CyberSpy Software agreed to settle a 2008 FTC lawsuit that alleged it violated the law by advertising its RemoteSpy key logger program as being "100 percent undetectable" and could be installed on another person's computer without their knowledge, the FTC said in a news release.

The FTC claimed the firm provided its customers with instructions on how to disguise the spyware by attaching it to an unrelated file such as a picture or an e-mail. When a user clicked on such a file, the spyware would automatically and secretly be downloaded onto the user's computer. The spyware would then record every keystroke typed on the infected computer, captured images and also recorded passwords and the Web sites the user visited. RemoteSpy's clients could access the information the spyware collected through a Web site operated by CyberSpy.

The FTC settlement bars CyberSpy and its owner from providing its clients with information on how to disguise the product so that it can be secretly installed on someone's computer, requires it to inform its clients that improper use of the software is illegal, and mandates that CyberSpy take steps to reduce the risk that its products will be misused and remove legacy versions of the software from computers on which it was installed.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Wednesday announced it has reached a two-year "no-cost" agreement with Google to make patent and trademark data electronically available for free to the public in bulk form.

Saying it currently lacks the technical capacity to offer such a service itself, the PTO said the two-year agreement with Google is a temporary solution while the agency seeks a contractor to build the PTO its own database that would allow the public to access such data in electronic machine-readable bulk form.

PTO Director David Kappos said in a statement that the move is part of its efforts to comply with President Obama's Open Government initiative by "making valuable public patent and trademark information more widely available in a bulk form so companies and researchers can download it for analysis and research."

Some of the information that will be available on this new online site operated by Google includes: patent grants and published applications; trademark applications; trademark trial and appeal board proceedings; patent classification information; patent maintenance fee information; and patent and trademark assignments. Up until now, the PTO only provided such data in bulk form for a fee.

Canada's privacy commissioner has launched an investigation into Google's disclosure that it mistakenly collected data from unsecured home Wi-Fi networks.

"We are very concerned about the privacy implications stemming from Google's confirmation that it had been capturing Wi-Fi data in neighborhoods across Canada and around the world over the past several years," Canadian Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart said in a statement Tuesday.

Google acknowledged last month that vehicles that photograph pictures for the company's Street View service and also tracked the location of Wi-Fi networks mistakenly collected data from unsecured Wi-Fi networks. Several members of Congress have called on the FTC to investigate the matter, while EU officials also have voiced concern over the incident.

Stoddard said that her office will be examining whether the incident violated Canada's private sector privacy law, known as the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. She has urged Google to retain the Wi-Fi data it collected in Canada.

"We have a number of questions about how this collection could have happened and about the impact on people's privacy," she said.

Google has said it collected the information by mistake and has pledged to cooperate with all the relevant authorities.

Meanwhile, a public interest group that has been critical of many of Google's activities, including its privacy policies, released a report Wednesday that claims Google has used its search engine dominance to drive traffic to its other services.

From this morning's Earlybird:

• "Facebook Inc., owner of the world's largest social-networking site, said its advertisers have more than quadrupled since the start of 2009 as marketers aim to get their products before a growing global audience," Bloomberg News reports.

The FCC plans to hold one or two field hearings on the $30 billion Comcast-NBC Universal merger, with an official announcement expected soon.

The agency's Democratic commissioners, Michael Copps and Mignon Clyburn, along with Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., have been vocal in urging FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski to schedule the hearings to ensure that a wider range of voices will be heard about the deal and its impact.

The FCC hearing (or hearings) would likely be held where Comcast has a strong presence and where NBC owns and operates broadcast television stations. On Tuesday, the House Judiciary Committee disclosed in an e-mail that it will convene a June 7 field hearing on the transaction in Los Angeles, where NBCU has pledged to divest one of three television stations it owns if permitted to combine with Comcast.

Judiciary Committee member Waters, whose district is in South Central Los Angeles, is considered the main impetus behind the scheduling of that session. The FCC and the Justice Department's Antitrust Division are spearheading the merger review.

The U.S. Telecom Association has hired two former Hill staffers as it beefs up its government affairs staff.

The group announced Tuesday that Gregory Willis, the former general counsel to Senate Small Business Chairwoman Mary Landrieu, D-La., has been tapped for U.S. Telecom's new position of vice president for general business policy issues. Willis also served as the procurement counsel to the Small Business Committee under then-Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., and also worked as a speechwriter for Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark.

The group also announced it has hired Annie Chavez as its director of government affairs. She will be responsible for heading up the association's outreach to Senate Democrats. She most recently served as legislative counsel to Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., and also has worked as an aide to former Democratic FCC member Gloria Tristani.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski's broadband policies are under renewed criticism. This time, concerns are being raised by a bipartisan group of House lawmakers who represent rural districts and worry the FCC's national broadband plan will jeopardize the current regulatory structure used to maintain and expand rural telecommunications services.

In a letter Friday, 40 House lawmakers from both parties expressed concern that provisions in the national broadband plan released in March by the FCC would exacerbate the digital divide between rural and urban America and also would upend the regulatory structure and support provided to rural carriers from the universal service fund, which subsidizes telecommunications services in rural areas.

"Our concern is that the [broadband plan] sets the United States on a course toward a greater digital divide between urban and rural areas by proposing 4 megabits per second rate (Mbps) as the goal for rural areas, while boasting about the benefits of 100 Mbps for more densely populated areas," according to the letter spearheaded by Reps. Sam Graves, R-Mo., the ranking member on the House Small Business Committee, and Betsy Markey, D-Colo. It also was signed by some senior members of the House including Transportation Chairman Jim Oberstar, D-Minn., Agriculture Chairman Collin Peterson, D-Minn., and Judiciary ranking member Lamar Smith, R-Texas.

They added that implementing the broadband plan as written would not provide all Americans with adequate broadband service because "it puts at risk the regulatory structure and support that rural communications providers need to maintain and expand their networks. The lawmakers called on the FCC to make changes to the plan to address such concerns.

The broadband plan calls for overhauling the universal service fund to expand its support to include broadband service.

Concerns over the plan's impact on rural communities is just the latest criticism of the FCC's broadband policies. Genachowski's proposal to reclassify broadband as a more heavily regulated telecommunications service has come under fire by a majority of Congress.

The FTC is set to host its first workshop Wednesday on whether to update the rule implementing a law aimed at protecting children's privacy online.

The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, which went into effect in 2000, requires Web sites to obtain parental consent before collecting personal information from children under the age of 13. The commission is weighing whether to apply the rule to new technologies such as mobile devices, interactive television and interactive gaming, examining whether there are new technologies for verifying the age of users and other issues.

The public roundtable, which will take place at the FTC, will feature several panels including one that will examine extending COPPA's definitions of the "Internet," "Web site" and "Online service" to new devices and technologies, while other panels will debate the law's "actual knowledge" standard and definition of "personal information."

The law requires the FTC to review the COPPA rule every five years. The FTC declined to update it in 2005 but now says that new technologies and the use of mobile broadband have prompted the commission to examine whether the rule should be updated.

The FBI, FTC and several other federal agencies Tuesday announced an education campaign aimed at making consumers more aware of mass marketing fraud schemes that use low-tech and high-tech communications tools to target their victims.

"Thanks to the Internet, criminals and crime groups can also target victims halfway around the world, blasting out spam e-mails by the millions and setting up phony but realistic Web sites to lure people in," the FBI said in news release.

The FBI, FTC, Homeland Security Department's Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the U.S. Secret Service have launched a public awareness effort to educate consumers about these scams, which now involve bulk postal mail, telemarketing and e-mail to persuade potential victims to provide money or personal information in exchange for the promise of future prizes, products, or services that never come.

Among the latest scams the FBI warned consumers to beware of involves an online rental scheme. The scammers forward a counterfeit check to a property owner for more than the amount of rent owed on a rental property and ask that the difference be wired back to the scammer.

The FBI warns consumers to be wary of those who ask for personal financial details like bank account or credit card numbers over the phone or by e-mail; ask to help transfer funds out of a foreign country; or those who provide checks or money orders bigger than the cost of an item being sold and ask for a refund of the difference.

A new survey released Tuesday found that European telecommunications markets have become more competitive but also said European Union regulators are still far from achieving their goal of a unified telecom market.

The European Commission, the EU's regulatory arm, said its rules requiring EU member states to submit new telecom rules to the commission for review has led to less and more consistent regulation.

"The report highlights that implementation of EU telecom rules by national regulators under commission supervision has opened up telecoms markets to competition, bringing greater choice and cheaper prices to EU citizens and businesses," commission Vice President for Competition Joaquín Almunia said in a statement.

Still, the report said that EU member states continue to impose differing regulations on telecom providers. For example, the report found that some countries treat broadband providers who use fiber optic lines differently and calculate telecom interconnection costs differently. The report warned that such differing approaches could hamper the rollout of new technologies.

A single EU telecom market is one of the seven key goals included in the EU's "Digital Agenda," released last month, which also called for the deployment of high-speed Internet service of 30 megabits or higher for all EU citizens by 2020.

A new FCC survey released Tuesday found that most broadband Internet subscribers in the United States do not know the speed of their connection. To help address the issue the FCC is seeking volunteers to participate in a study measuring home broadband speeds.

In a second initiative, the FCC also is seeking public input on how to measure mobile broadband speeds and ways that speed information can be used to help improve service.

On the first initiative, the FCC said it is seeking 10,000 volunteers to agree to have specialized hardware installed in their homes to measure the performance of all major U.S. Internet service providers across the country. SamKnows Limited, the firm working with the FCC on the study, conducted a similar effort in Britain.

The commission said the tests are key to helping Americans better understand what type of service they are getting from their broadband providers. The survey released by the FCC found 80 percent of Americans do not know the speed of their broadband connections. Despite this, 91 percent of broadband users say they are "very" or "somewhat" satisfied with the speed they get at home, according to the survey of 1,742 home broadband users conducted April 19 to May 2. The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.6 percentage points.

"Speed matters. The more broadband subscribers know about what speeds they need and what speeds they get, the more they can make the market work and push faster speeds over broadband networks," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said in a statement.

As part of its national broadband plan, Genachowski has set a goal of ensuring 100 million Americans have access to 100 megabit broadband service by 2020.

In response to the FCC's Notice of Inquiry on mobile broadband speeds, Steve Largent, president and CEO of the wireless industry group CTIA, noted that a "variety of factors" affect wireless broadband speeds such as congestion on the network, weather conditions, and the location of and type of device used by a mobile customer.

"Since the wireless broadband environment is constantly changing, it is difficult, if not impossible, to provide a speed-certain for all consumers on a wireless network," he said, adding that wireless providers instead try to offer "a range of typical speeds that more accurately mirror the wireless broadband experience."

An amendment to the Defense authorization bill, which the House passed Friday, would push through committee efforts to update information security requirements for agencies and establish a separate cybersecurity office in the White House, Nextgov.com reported.

The fiscal 2011 National Defense Authorization Act includes an amendment that would speed passage of existing measures from the Oversight and Government Reform Committee to overhaul federal cybersecurity.

"It was appropriate to attach this amendment to the Defense authorization bill because properly securing our cyber infrastructure is a national security issue," according to a spokeswoman for Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., who offered the amendment with Rep. Diane Watson, D-Calif.

"Not only does this amendment make necessary and wholesale improvements to our current cybersecurity policy and management framework, but it will also ensure that agencies have a strong leader within the Executive Office of the President to assist them in their efforts," Watson said in a statement.

The amendment would mandate agency use of automated monitoring to assess cyber threats. It would involve a major overhaul of the 2002 Federal Information Security Management Act, which often is criticized for forcing IT staffs to spend too much time and too many resources reporting about compliance with certain security procedures. Agencies also would be expected to incorporate security requirements into contracts from the start.

Other provisions in the amendment would establish a National Office of Cyberspace in the White House with budget authority over cybersecurity spending and government-wide coordinating responsibilities, and codify posts of the federal cybersecurity coordinator, held by Howard Schmidt, and chief technology officer, who is Aneesh Chopra.

The amendment is based on H.R. 4900, sponsored by Watson, and H.R. 5247, sponsored by Langevin.

The security community has widely praised the provisions. "This is an important step forward," said Alan Paller, director of research for the SANS Institute, noting he expects it will accelerate companion measures in the Senate and create "a real chance of major progress quickly."

From this morning's Earlybird:

• "Intel Corp. announced plans for a new class of chips aimed at the supercomputer market, while a big machine in China neared the top spot of the world's fastest systems," the Wall Street Journal reports.