Rules giving people more control over their personal data while making cross-Europe data flows easier won approval Monday night from the European Parliament Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee, said that LIBE committee. That was as expected (WID Oct 22 p2) OR (CD Oct 22 p7). European Parliament members (MEPs) responded to mass surveillance reports with a provision requiring that if a non-EU country asks a company such as a search engine, social network or cloud provider to disclose personal information processed in the EU, the company must seek authorization from the national data protection authority before transferring any data, LIBE said. The company also must inform the data subject of any such request, it said. The language is a response to mass spying activities unveiled in June, it said. The compromise text also sets penalties of up to 100 million euros ($137 million) or up to 5 percent of a company’s annual global turnover, whichever is greater, the committee said. Individuals would have the right to have personal data “erased” upon request, and organizations processing personal information must obtain clear permission from the data subject, it said. MEPs also clarified that the execution of a contract or the provision of a service can’t be made conditional upon consent to processing personal data that isn’t strictly necessary for the completion of the contract or service. The text also provides that profiling to analyze or predict people’s work performance, location, health or behavior is allowed only subject to their consent, when provided by law or when needed to carry out a contract, LIBE said. The data protection package contains two draft laws, the general regulation covering most personal data processing in the EU, and a directive covering personal data processed for law enforcement. LIBE also authorized Parliament to start negotiations with national governments, which will begin as soon as the Council agrees on its own position, LIBE said. Parliament wants to reach agreement on data protection before the May European elections, it said. The vote ensures European data protection rules are “up to the challenges of the digital age,” said the official reporter for the general data protection regulation, Jan Philipp Albrecht, of the Greens/European Free Alliance and Germany. Albrecht hopes the Council, which meets Thursday and Friday to discuss digital matters, will send a message to national governments to adopt data protection revisions before the elections, he said at a news conference Tuesday. The LIBE vote “is a strong signal for Europe,” said Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes. It paves the way for a uniform, strong data protection law that will cut business costs and boost protection of citizens, she said. “The European Parliament has proven that excessive lobbying can be counter-productive” by not only defending but also strengthening people’s right to be forgotten, she said in an EC memo. European Data Protection Supervisor Peter Hustinx applauded LIBE’s action and urged the EU institutions to complete data protection as soon as possible. But the schism between rights activists and industry over some of the provisions continued in reactions to LIBE’s action. The Industry Coalition for Data Protection (ICDP) said the draft needs “considerable improvements.” The coalition, with members including DigitalEurope, the European Internet Services Providers’ Association, Business Software Alliance and TechAmerica Europe, urged lawmakers and governments to make several changes, including: (1) Using a risk-based approach that recognizes concepts such as context and risk in the definition of personal data, data processing and appropriate penalties. (2) Maintaining clear roles and duties in the data processing value chains. (3) Guaranteeing a free flow of data across international borders to give European companies access to fast-growing markets outside the EU. (4) Putting in place a meaningful one-stop-shop mechanism to make it easier for businesses and consumers to apply the new privacy rules. (5) Limiting the requirement for explicit consent to genuinely at-risk situations. European Digital Rights Executive Director Joe McNamee said that “if allowed to stand, this vote would launch an ‘open season’ for online companies to quietly collect our data, create profiles and sell our personalities to the highest bidder.”

Netflix grew its subscribership to more than 40 million globally in Q3 ended Sept. 30 from under 30 million a year ago, it said Monday. Domestic members grew to 31.1 million from 25.1 million at the end of Q3 last year and 29.8 million at the end of Q2 this year. Subscribers in other markets grew to 9.2 million from 4.3 million at the end of Q3 last year and 7.8 million at the end of Q2 this year. The international growth was due to the company’s expansion into the Nordic markets and the Netherlands since last year’s Q3, as well as growth in existing markets, Netflix said in a letter to shareholders posted at its website. Revenue grew to $1.1 billion from $905.1 million in Q3 last year. Profit soared to $31.8 million, or 52 cents a share, from $7.7 million, or 13 cents a share. The company will launch in new markets next year, it said, without saying which. Netflix expects to double its investment in original content in 2014, but that will still be less than 10 percent of total global content expense, it said.

Two cable industry technology groups expanded their relationship. This comes as one of the groups, the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers, is holding a conference in Orlando, where advances to the other group’s DOCSIS broadband specification were discussed. CableLabs and SCTE are creating “a framework that will enable parallel development of new technologies and supporting training resources by SCTE and CableLabs, including DOCSIS,” they said in a news release Monday (http://bit.ly/1aAulay). They said a DOCSIS engineering professional certification and other joint training and panel events are part of the expanded relationship.

Marlin Equity Partners said Monday it’s buying Tellabs for $891 million. Tellabs, which provides network equipment to Vodafone, Telecom Italia and other wireless carriers and network providers, had reported a net loss of $8 million in the last quarter and reduced its staff by 500 workers last year. Marlin co-founder Nick Kaiser said in a statement the company views the purchase as “an ideal opportunity to capitalize on the growth in the telecom network equipment sector.” The deal is expected to close by year’s end (http://bit.ly/19oNZZr).

The Defense Information Systems Agency gave Iridium a $400 million multiyear contract to provide satellite airtime services for the Department of Defense. The contract is effective Tuesday, and Iridium will provide “unlimited global secure and unsecure voice, low and high-speed data, paging and distributed tactical communications system services for an unlimited number of DOD and other federal government subscribers,” Iridium said in a news release (http://bit.ly/1dbR7vP). The contract extends the government’s relationship with Iridium and “ensures the continuation of service through new terms which offer program stability and the best value to the DOD to expand services supporting its critical missions,” Iridium said.

The FCC’s soft stance on shared ownership agreements has led to a “wave of consolidation” in broadcasting, said Free Press in a new report released Monday (http://bit.ly/1a0npol). Two hundred eleven full-power TV stations have changed hands in the first eight months of 2013 -- “the highest level in more than a decade, and the fourth-highest year on record in terms of deal value,” said Free Press in a release (http://bit.ly/1a7Gl6L). The report calls Sinclair Broadcast Group the “spearhead” of the consolidation trend -- the broadcaster has grown from 58 to 160 stations in the past two years, Free Press said. “Sinclair controls or will control 46 stations nominally owned by a third party, with 40 of these stations’ licenses held by shell companies Sinclair created for the express purpose of evading the FCC’s ownership rules,” said Free Press in the release. The report also targets similar local ownership deals by Gannett, Media General, Nexstar and Tribune, said Free Press. “Under Securities and Exchange Commission rules, these shell companies and their parent corporations are considered one and the same,” said Free Press. “When Sinclair communicates with investors, it makes no effort to hide the fact that it’s the true owner of these shell companies and their stations, repeatedly referring to them as ‘our sidecar companies’ and ‘our stations,'” said the release. “The FCC should recognize that these shell companies and the outsourcing agreements that govern them are merely a legal fiction created by companies like Sinclair, Gannett, Tribune and Nexstar to evade the ownership rules,” said report author Derek Turner. The report asks FCC Chairman-nominee Tom Wheeler to deny the pending transactions involving sharing agreements and close the “loopholes” in FCC rules that allow them, the release said. Wheeler “has an opportunity to stop this consolidation by enforcing FCC rules that are already on the books,” said Free Press. “But if the FCC continues its head-in-the-sand approach, we will continue to see unbridled consolidation -- and the devastation of community-centered journalism."

Nielsen and Experian Marketing Services are working together on demographics in reporting online advertising audiences, said the companies after the close of regular U.S. stock trading Monday. Nielsen online campaign ratings can report on audience characteristics including estimated household income range, family size and education level, said the companies in a news release (http://bit.ly/175dJu2). “The additional audience characteristics are comparable to metrics available for TV, creating greater measurement parity between media channels.” Nielsen earlier this fall completed the purchase of Arbitron and agreed with the FTC to divest and license assets and intellectual property needed for syndicated U.S. cross-platform audience measurement services (CD Sept 30 p12).

Thirty cities responded to C Spire’s request for information to bring a gigabit fiber network to municipalities across Mississippi, a company spokesman told us Monday. C Spire is starting to review applications this week and will announce on Nov. 4 “more than one” community to get a fiber network, he said. In that announcement, C Spire said it will divulge prices for its gigabit service, digital TV and phone in addition to discounts and package pricing. Interactive maps will also be available to residents to see where the fiber is coming in their neighborhoods and to start the pre-registration process, he said. In addition to the RFI, communities were also required to demonstrate resident interests in these speeds through special events, celebrations and websites, said the spokesman. Ridgeland community development representatives met with representatives from the school district, the homeowners association and Chamber of Commerce to get the word out, said Bryan Johnson, who works for the city department. “We met with anyone who showed an interest in getting fiber first,” said Johnson. “Getting fiber is good for our schools and for our businesses to have a faster Internet service.” DeSoto County decided to combine its efforts with its five municipalities and one unincorporated town to get a fiber network in at least one of its jurisdictions, said John Mitchell, the county’s information technology director. “We made it a competition in our communities to see who gets the fiber, and we submitted our RFIs together,” Mitchell said. “It’s ultimately better for the county if someone here gets it.” Clinton, Miss., already has some of the fiber infrastructure in place for a gigabit network, which made it more important for the city to entice its residents to support it, said a Clinton spokesman. Clinton has a one-to-one initiative in its schools to give a digital device to every student, and Mississippi College is located in the town, he said. “The number of devices in our community drains the bandwidth and getting more fiber will open it up because we wouldn’t have these kinds of restrictions,” he said. “This is important to build and grow businesses, and to encourage innovation.”

The global market for connectable set-top boxes (STBs) is expected to soar 91 percent from 2012 through 2017 due to factors including the adoption of multimedia home gateways (MHGs), IHS said Monday. Global shipments of connectable STBs are expected to increase to 125.6 million units in 2017 from 65.8 million in 2012, the research company said. Forty-five percent of all STBs shipped in 2017 will be connectable, up from 26 percent in 2012, it projected. A connectable STB is a set-top box that can be linked to an IP network. “Consumers increasingly are demanding connectivity from their electronics devices, and STBs are playing a central role in the networking of products,” said Daniel Simmons, senior principal STB analyst, in a news release. IPTV pay-TV operators will account for the largest share of the connectable STB market in 2013, with 39 percent of shipments, IHS projected. But there will be a “rapid” increase in shipments of cable HD STBs by Chinese operators and MHG migration throughout the rest of the world, it said. North America is the largest market for connectable pay-TV STBs now, with an estimated 41 percent of global shipments in 2013, it said, predicting the region will retain its global lead through 2017. But Asia-Pacific is expected to have the fastest growth from 2012 to 2017, with shipments expanding at a compound annual growth rate of 17.2 percent, it said.

NTIA and the National Institute of Standards and Technology will host Innovative Spectrum Sharing Technology Day Nov. 5, the Commerce Department agencies said Monday. NTIA, NIST and White House officials will kick off the event at 10 a.m. at the Commerce Department’s headquarters, 1401 Constitution Avenue, N.W., in Washington(http://1.usa.gov/1h1gsZc). “President Obama, supported by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, has focused on the use of spectrum sharing technology innovations to enhance spectrum efficiency and to expedite commercial access to spectrum bands where technically and economically feasible,” said a news release.