Technology

Too many tax-payer funded technologies are being taken by China or other countries, Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., says, and on Friday he reintroduced a bill to stop the flow.

In order to operate in China, for example, American companies are often forced to hand over their intellectual property and proprietary. Many of those technologies are developed using taxpayer money through grant, loans, or other incentives, Webb said in a statement.

"If taxpayers supported the development of the technology, they own a piece of it and it can't just be given away," Webb said. "Federal dollars that go toward R&D funding, loan guarantees, and public-private partnerships in order to help develop the next generation of technologies here are supposed to be making American businesses competitive and generate American jobs -- not to help develop other industries, such as those in China."

Webb's bill would prohibit companies from transferring technology to countries that require such transfers as a cost of doing business.

"The transfer of publicly supported proprietary technologies by American firms to China -- and potentially other countries -- clearly and unequivocally places the competitive advantage of the American economy at risk," Webb said.

The Technology CEO Council is expected to announce Monday that Michael Dell, chairman and CEO of computer maker Dell, has been tapped as its new chairman.

Dell succeeds IBM Chairman and CEO Samuel J. Palmisano as head of the council, an advocacy group made up of chief executives from major tech firms and aimed at promoting U.S. innovation and competitiveness. This is the second time Dell has chaired the group, having last held the post from 2001-2003.

"At this time of economic uncertainty and challenges, it's more important than ever that the business community work closely with elected leaders and policymakers to help our economy grow and prosper and create jobs for Americans," Dell said in a statement.

Among the issues the council is pushing for include changes to the nation's tax structure, expanded free trade, reforms to the U.S. immigration system, and increased use of technology in government, health care and energy. Other members of the group include the leaders of Applied Materials, Intel, Motorola Solutions and Xerox.

Google+, the search company's social effort, has passed Twitter and LinkedIn in its share of online U.S. adults, now at 22 percent, Bloomberg reports.

A man in Las Vegas has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges he sent more than 27 million spam Facebook messages, the Associated Press reports.

As LinkedIn posted its first earnings report after going public, TechCrunch examines how the company leverages social media for investor relations.

Gizmodo reports on the FBI's first app, perfect for moments when "your child gets snatched."

Mashable checks out "bedphones," the headphones you can wear while sleeping. http://mashable.com/2011/08/05/bedphones/

For more of today's e-reads, click here.

Former Microsoft executive Steven VanRoekel will succeed Vivek Kundra as the federal chief information officer, President Obama announced Thursday.

VanRoekel was also managing director at the Federal Communications Commission, where he overhauled the agency website that aimed to make data more accessible.

VanRoekel will become the government's top official on information technology matters, situated within the Office of Management and Budget.

Kundra announced earlier this year that he is leaving the administration for Harvard University, where he will carry out a fellowship with a focus on researching cloud computing, open data, and open government -- issues he emphasized during his tenure in the Obama administration.

The role of federal CIO is influential as the government seeks to use technology more efficiently to save cash. Such initiatives as the transition to store government data in "the cloud" allows the for the closing of costly data centers, a strategy Kundra strongly backed.

VanRoekel announced his departure from the FCC two months ago and currently is executive director at the Agency for International Development. He worked for Microsoft for 15 years, at one point as an assistant for co-founder Bill Gates.

The position is not subject to Senate confirmation. VanRoekel told The New York Times that he intends to build on the work Kundra has done. "We're trying to make sure that the pace of innovation in the private sector can be applied to the model that is government," he said.

There's good news and bad news in a new report released Wednesday by the Commerce Department about women in science, technology, engineering and math - also known as STEM -- fields.

The good news is that the wage gap between what women and men earn is less when it comes to STEM jobs. The bad news is that the number of women choosing STEM jobs has not increased even as the number of women with college degrees has risen in recent years.

The new report, based on statistics from the Census Bureau's 2009 American Community Survey, notes that even as the number of STEM jobs has grown, the share of women in STEM jobs has remained steady at about 25 percent, compared with 48 percent of all other types of employment. This even though STEM jobs are projected to grow by 17 percent by 2018 -- nearly twice as much as other fields -- and that women in STEM jobs earn 33 percent more on average than women in other jobs.

At the same time, the gap that exists among all jobs between what men and women earn, is smaller in STEM fields. Women in STEM jobs earn 14 percent less than men in those jobs, compared with 21 percent less in other fields.

"The evidence is clear. We have an unacceptable STEM gender gap," acting Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank said in a call with reporters. "We're challenged to change the current trajectory by encouraging and supporting women to be more involved and interested in STEM jobs."

There are many possible reasons for why more women are not seeking STEM jobs such as "a lack of female role models, gender stereotyping, and less family-friendly flexibility in the STEM fields," the report said.

In examining specific STEM fields, the report found that the proportion of women in computer and math jobs actually fell between 2000 and 2009 from 30 percent to 27 percent. Life and physical science is the one STEM area that has shown the most growth, with the proportion of women increasing from 36 percent in 2000 to 40 percent in 2009.

The American Civil Liberties Union announced a new effort on Wednesday to uncover details on how local law enforcement agencies use location data stored on cell phones to track or provide evidence on private citizens.

Last month a top lawyer at the National Security Agency, Matthew Olsen, suggested the Patriot Act may have given the federal government powers to use cell phone data to track Americans inside the United States, a comment that alarmed privacy advocates and civil libertarians.

On Wednesday, 34 ACLU affiliates across the country cited Olsen's remarks and announced they had filed requests under government transparency laws for documents that could reveal how authorities use location data on cell phones for law enforcement.

The ACLU groups want to know if agencies provide citizens the appropriate protections when they access this data; for instance, they want to know if officers tend to obtain a warrant first. They are also seeking statistics on how often authorities use this data and how much funding these efforts receive.

"The ability to access cell phone location data is an incredibly powerful tool and its use is shrouded in secrecy. The public has a right to know how and under what circumstances their location information is being accessed by the government," Catherine Crump, staff attorney for the ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, said in a statement. "A detailed history of someone's movements is extremely personal and is the kind of information the Constitution protects."

The ACLU supports a bill under consideration in Congress that spells out clear guidelines on how government authorities may use location data from cell phones. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, introduced the "Geolocation Privacy and Surveillance (GPS) Act" in June.

Privacy concerns related to cell phone use are not limited to questions about how the government may be tracking citizens. Reports earlier this year that revealed the extent to which smart phone companies track users' location were a major concern for privacy advocates.

President Barack Obama is no fan of lobbyists, priding himself on running an administration he says is unswayed by undue influence.

But he seems to have swallowed his distaste long enough to entertain one of Microsoft's top lobbyists Monday at the White House, where the tech giant announced a $15 million investment in immersive learning technologies like game-based instruction.

Microsoft SVP Fred Humphries sat in for CEO Steve Ballmer, who couldn't make the education roundtable that featured other high-powered current and former executives like United Way's Brian Gallagher and former Intel chief Craig Barrett, who were both registered to lobby until several years ago.

"At least Humphries is registered, unlike so many of his counterparts who lobby under the radar," complained one GOP tech lobbyist.

Humphries lobbies on copyright, immigration reform, broadband, taxes, free trade and, appropriately for today's White House meeting, "promoting excellence in technology, education, standards, and science," according to the company's latest lobbying disclosure.

"Microsoft is making a significant investment in education today announcing a new $15 million investment in research and development," said White House spokesman Eric Schultz. "They are committing over the next three years to train 150,000 educators and leaders and provide access to professional learning communities."

Still, the meeting left some on K Street grumbling about what they see as the president's double standard, regularly knocking lobbyists until they can help his administration.

Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) wrote to the chief executives of AT&T and T-Mobile on Thursday to question whether the proposal to combine their companies would cost jobs.

T-Mobile's U.S. headquarters in Bellevue, Washington are just outside Inslee's district. He said his constituents have contacted him with concerns about the merger. "With Washington's 9.1 percent unemployment rate, we can ill afford to lose the more than 3,300 jobs T-Mobile maintains in Washington," he said in a letter.

Inslee homed in on an AT&T estimate that combining the two companies would save $10 billion through cuts to support and general and administrative expenses. He requested a "detailed explanation" of this number, "including the job loss estimate used to calculate this figure, both in headquarters organization and elsewhere."

Inslee also questioned whether prices will rise for T-Mobile customers who have unlimited data plans, unlike AT&T's subscribers who submit to usage caps.

Inslee's other concerns included whether AT&T really faces a spectrum shortage as it claims, whether the proposed consolidation will limit choice in the device market, and whether the merger will affect prices and choice in the market for wireless backhaul, the crucial landline connections wireless carriers largely purchase from AT&T and Verizon.

Inslee, a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, is a longtime critic of the telecom industry in part due to his ardent support for net neutrality regulations.

AT&T has acknowledged that the merger could lead to some job losses, but says its plan to invest $8 billion in its wireless network over the next seven years will create jobs.
The investment would bring wireless broadband to 97 percent of Americans, the company says.

"We have a metric that every billion dollars results in 7,000 new jobs, so I think that's bringing new jobs to the economy, bringing new jobs to the country, extending a critical infrastructure to the country, and I think it's good for the overall economy," AT&T executive Ralph de la Vega said in a CNBC interview earlier this year.

The merger has been endorsed by the Communications Workers of America and other major unions, which see the combination as a boon to the labor movement since AT&T supports a unionized workforce.

Tim McKone, AT&T's executive vice president of federal relations, said, "We have received the letter and we look forward to responding to Congressman Inslee and discussing the tremendous benefits this merger will bring to consumers across the United States."

The $39 billion deal is under review at the FCC and the Justice Department. It is expected to face additional congressional hearings this fall.

Telecom companies wrote to the White House and congressional leaders on Thursday urging them to abandon a proposal to pay down the deficit using money in the Universal Service Fund (USF), an $8 billion pool devoted to subsidizing telecom services for low-income and rural households.

U.S. Telecom, an association for broadband companies including Verizon and AT&T, said in a statement that debt limit negotiators are considering a proposal to divert $1 billion from the fund to help pay for deficit reduction.

Congressional aides said the proposal to divert USF funds was part of a document circulated by the GOP conference earlier this week outlining a strategy for addressing the deficit. They said the document, which also recommended using spectrum auction revenue as part of the package, set off a flurry of concern from industry this week.

In a letter to negotiators, the carriers panned the USF proposal as effectively creating a "new tax" by transforming USF contributions into taxation. USF currently consists of contributions from telecom carriers, who recover the money through a charge on consumer telephone bills.

"Diverting these funds to deficit reduction would constitute, in practical and legal effect, not only the imposition of a new tax on consumers' monthly communications bills," Walter McCormick, the president of U.S. Telecom, wrote in the letter. He said it would also undermine the FCC's efforts to transition the fund to pay for broadband rather than voice service in "a dramatic departure from one of the nation's highest priorities."

Delays in the federal government's telecommunications overhaul are costing Level 3 Communicatio9ns and Sprint Nextel a big load of business, the Washington Post reports.

Venture capital funds raised 28 percent more in the second quarter of the year than in the same period of 2010.

Groupon plans to give business partners more data about its users in a move that could invite Washington scrutiny.

Apple is making another effort to control the trademark for "App Store."

Netflix doesn't want Hulu.

Google chairman-cum-author Eric Schmidt is feeling the heat of his book deadline.

A handful of Web startups aim to give customers more control over their health.

Google is helping out in post-tsunami Japan in an effort that could help raise its profile there.

Therapy over the Internet?