The Supreme Court said police in general must obtain a warrant before searching the information on a cellphone. The unanimous decision Wednesday was written by Chief Justice John Roberts. The court heard two cases raising similar issues April 29, Riley v. California, which involved the search of a smartphone, and United States v. Brima Wurie, which involved the search of a less sophisticated flip phone (CD April 30 p8).

The Senate Intelligence Committee is set to mark up the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) Thursday, but expectations about the result of that markup remain unclear even after months of behind-the-scenes revisions. The markup, closed to the public, is set to begin at 2:30 p.m. in Hart 219.

Stakeholders argued over a biometric industry group’s facial recognition best practices, but decided they were nearing consensus on a few issues such as facial template storage and breaches of facial template data, at Tuesday’s NTIA-facilitated facial recognition technology code of conduct meeting. Stakeholders have been working to identify principles on which to base a code and issues the code must address, but faced a potential stumbling block when consumer advocates took issue with recently released best practices guidelines from the International Biometrics & Identification Association (IBIA) (CD June 24 p6).

The FCC Incentive Auction Task Force is deciding what information will be provided to broadcasters as part of the commission’s outreach efforts in advance of the incentive auction, said an agency official Tuesday. The commission has hired investment banking firm Greenhill & Co. to prepare “information material” that will contain information on pricing and auction mechanics to help broadcasters decide whether to participate in the auction, but it’s unclear how specific that material will get, how it will be disseminated or its breadth, agency officials told us. “To be effective, that material needs to tell broadcasters the range of prices they can expect to see,” said Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasting Coalition Executive Director Preston Padden.

Technology is more a solution to distracted driving than the problem, consumer electronics and car industry executives told the Connected Car Conference at CE Week in New York Tuesday. But technology “can be both a problem in the car as well as a solution to the problems behind the wheel,” said David Zuby, chief research officer at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is trying to line up votes in favor of E-rate reform for action at the agency’s July 11 open meeting. It’s unclear whether Wheeler will be able to get Republican support for the changes, dedicating $1 billion to Wi-Fi in 2015, industry and agency officials said Tuesday. To that end, Wheeler is emphasizing that his proposal does not increase the E-rate budget, but relies on $2 billion commission staff recently found has been set aside for E-rate but never spent.

The Senate and House Judiciary Antitrust subcommittees scrutinized the merits of AT&T’s proposed acquisition of DirecTV Tuesday in two hearings, the House in the morning and the Senate in the afternoon. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson and DirecTV CEO Michael White fielded a wide array of questions from lawmakers, in some instances critical but often simply curious, with sharper tones emerging from the senators. Lawmakers asked how the deal would help consumers, especially on the pricing front.

Comcast and Time Warner Cable combined to contribute more than $15 million in state-level political campaigns since 2009, said a report (http://bit.ly/1yKSQkr) released Tuesday by the National Institute on Money in State Politics. That “raises the question of how much influence Comcast or Time Warner Cable may have among elected officials who may be reviewing the acquisition, or who may be deciding not to review the acquisition,” the nonprofit organization’s research director, Peter Quist, told us.

The Department of Commerce will ramp up staffing in coming weeks to better administer the U.S.-EU safe-harbor agreement, including a website redesign with different sections tailored for European Union consumers and companies, said Ted Dean, deputy assistant secretary for services at Commerce’s International Trade Administration, which administers the safe harbor program. The FTC developed its own website to highlight its safe-harbor enforcement actions -- over half of which have occurred in 2014 -- said FTC Consumer Protection Bureau Director Jessica Rich. Both officials spoke at a Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue event Tuesday on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.

The upcoming AWS-3 auction should lead to a more competitive wireless industry, but only if the FCC gets the rules right at the start, said the Open Technology Institute at the New America Foundation and Public Knowledge, in reply comments. NAF, PK and other commenters stressed the importance of the FCC imposing different rules for the paired and unpaired spectrum blocks that will be up for sale in the auction. The FCC approved service rules for a 65 MHz AWS-3 auction March 31 (CD April 1 p1), setting the stage for the agency’s first major spectrum sale since 2008. Replies on proposed bidding rules were due Monday in docket 14-78. The auction is to begin Nov. 13.