Microsoft representatives encouraged the FCC to resolve various petitions for reconsideration on the TV white spaces (TVWS), in a meeting last week with Julius Knapp, chief of the Office of Engineering and Technology, and other OET officials. Microsoft also raised other white spaces issues, said a filing in docket 16-56: “Specifically, we discussed the need to maintain the WMTS [wireless medical telemetry service] exclusion zones in Channel 37 and to replace the push notification requirement with fast-polling channels. We also thanked OET for its approval of Microsoft’s amended experimental license for the use of TVWS on school buses in Michigan.” OET amended Microsoft’s license last week (see 1804020040).

Microsoft representatives encouraged the FCC to resolve various petitions for reconsideration on the TV white spaces (TVWS), in a meeting last week with Julius Knapp, chief of the Office of Engineering and Technology, and other OET officials. Microsoft also raised other white spaces issues, said a filing in docket 16-56: “Specifically, we discussed the need to maintain the WMTS [wireless medical telemetry service] exclusion zones in Channel 37 and to replace the push notification requirement with fast-polling channels. We also thanked OET for its approval of Microsoft’s amended experimental license for the use of TVWS on school buses in Michigan.” OET amended Microsoft’s license last week (see 1804020040).

After a data scandal affecting some 87 million platform users, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg blamed himself for not taking a “broad enough view of our responsibility.” The remarks come in testimony prepared for presentation to Congress Wednesday in which he also casts blame on scholar Aleksandr Kogan and Cambridge Analytica.

After a data scandal affecting some 87 million platform users, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg blamed himself for not taking a “broad enough view of our responsibility.” The remarks come in testimony prepared for presentation to Congress Wednesday in which he also casts blame on scholar Aleksandr Kogan and Cambridge Analytica.

After a data scandal affecting some 87 million platform users, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg blamed himself for not taking a “broad enough view of our responsibility.” The remarks come in testimony prepared for presentation to Congress Wednesday in which he also casts blame on scholar Aleksandr Kogan and Cambridge Analytica.

Facebook will require identity and location disclosure for political advertisers, it announced Friday, also endorsing a key bill to thwart foreign interference in elections and becoming perhaps the first major tech company to do so. "Election interference is a problem that's bigger than any one platform, and that's why we support" the Honest Ads Act (see 1803260045), CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Friday. "This will help raise the bar for all political advertising online." The bill would pave the way to apply some disclosure rules to online ads that are now required for ads on more traditional media. The Cambridge Analytica intrusion and Facebook's role also came up at length at a panel discussion Friday (see 1804060057)

Facebook will require identity and location disclosure for political advertisers, it announced Friday, also endorsing a key bill to thwart foreign interference in elections and becoming perhaps the first major tech company to do so. "Election interference is a problem that's bigger than any one platform, and that's why we support" the Honest Ads Act (see 1803260045), CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Friday. "This will help raise the bar for all political advertising online." The bill would pave the way to apply some disclosure rules to online ads that are now required for ads on more traditional media. The Cambridge Analytica intrusion and Facebook's role also came up at length at a panel discussion Friday (see 1804060057)

Facebook will require identity and location disclosure for political advertisers, it announced Friday, also endorsing a key bill to thwart foreign interference in elections and becoming perhaps the first major tech company to do so. "Election interference is a problem that's bigger than any one platform, and that's why we support" the Honest Ads Act (see 1803260045), CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Friday. "This will help raise the bar for all political advertising online." The bill would pave the way to apply some disclosure rules to online ads that are now required for ads on more traditional media. The Cambridge Analytica intrusion and Facebook's role also came up at length at a panel discussion Friday (see 1804060057)

House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., and Homeland Security Committee ranking member Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., urged the FCC Thursday to investigate and address any “unlawful use” of “hostile, foreign cell-site simulators,” commonly known as Stingrays, in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere in the U.S. They raised concerns in a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, after the Department of Homeland Security identified (see 1804040051) the cellsite simulators “throughout Washington.” The Stingrays “could be gathering intelligence on unwitting Americans on behalf of foreign governments,” the lawmakers said: “If these reports are true, it marks an incredible security vulnerability in the seat” of the federal government, particularly given the presence of “critical federal agencies including those involved in national defense and intelligence.” The commission created a task force in 2015 to address Stingray issues (see 1504290030), but “with foreign actors now potentially taking advantage of the Commission’s inaction, the FCC should act,” the Democrats said. The agency didn't immediately comment.

House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., and Homeland Security Committee ranking member Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., urged the FCC Thursday to investigate and address any “unlawful use” of “hostile, foreign cell-site simulators,” commonly known as Stingrays, in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere in the U.S. They raised concerns in a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, after the Department of Homeland Security identified (see 1804040051) the cellsite simulators “throughout Washington.” The Stingrays “could be gathering intelligence on unwitting Americans on behalf of foreign governments,” the lawmakers said: “If these reports are true, it marks an incredible security vulnerability in the seat” of the federal government, particularly given the presence of “critical federal agencies including those involved in national defense and intelligence.” The commission created a task force in 2015 to address Stingray issues (see 1504290030), but “with foreign actors now potentially taking advantage of the Commission’s inaction, the FCC should act,” the Democrats said. The agency didn't immediately comment.