Two members of the Global Network Initiative said Friday they will remain in the multistakeholder information and communications technology group after the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a founding member of the group, resigned Thursday. GNI, which advocates for free expression and Internet privacy, is known for creating a code of conduct for its members to use overseas to mitigate “government demands for censorship and disclosure of users’ personal information. EFF said it “no longer believes we can sign our name onto joint statements that rely on shared knowledge of the security” of GNI member companies’ products or internal processes because gag orders on some of those companies bar them from disclosing U.S. government interference in their security practices brought to light in recent disclosures about National Security Agency surveillance programs. GNI’s member corporations include Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft and Yahoo. “We know that many within the industry do not like or approve of such government interference, and GNI has, in statements, made it clear that member companies want permission from the U.S. government to engage in greater transparency,” said EFF International Director Danny O'Brien and Director for International Freedom of Expression Jillian York in a letter to GNI leaders. GNI had asked the U.S. and other member governments in the Freedom Online Coalition to allow the disclosure of surveillance requests. “However, until serious reforms of the U.S. surveillance programs are in place, we no longer feel comfortable participating in the GNI process when we are not privy to the serious compromises GNI corporate members may be forced to make,” O'Brien and York said in the letter. EFF will “continue to share information and work closely” with GNI, but as an external entity, O'Brien and York said (http://bit.ly/19FHUKC). Center for Democracy and Technology President Leslie Harris said in a statement Friday that CDT is “committed to GNI and to its multistakeholder approach to addressing the difficult privacy and free expression challenges faced by companies on the global Internet.” Rebecca MacKinnon, a senior research fellow at the New America Foundation who also participates in GNI as an individual, told us in an email she has “no intention” of leaving GNI. She said she continues to have faith in “GNI’s mission and in the positive impact it has already begun to have -- and which will only strengthen over time. No progress is easy and the road to our ultimate goal -- a global ICT sector that maximizes respect for free expression and privacy -- is neither straight nor flat nor without major potholes. We are in a marathon, not a sprint. I don’t quit when the going gets difficult. With the Snowden revelations, we've certainly hit a rough section that is also on a steep incline. That does not mean the road should not be traveled.” GNI said in a statement that it appreciates EFF’s contributions to the group and “we look forward to working with them outside our formal structure to protect rights online.” GNI is “actively calling for transparency from governments on surveillance. These challenges make GNI’s work to advance freedom of expression and privacy rights more important than ever.”

About 20 people gathered Thursday to start new Do Not Track discussions, facilitated by the Digital Advertising Alliance, said Electronic Frontier Foundation Senior Staff Attorney Lee Tien, who attended the meeting. “It was very much a first meeting,” he told us. The talks launched amid uncertainty over the future of the longstanding Do Not Track discussions the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has been overseeing the past two years (CD Oct 10 p12). TechFreedom President Berin Szoka, who participated in the W3C process, told us the DAA talks might focus more on compliance and policy specifications than technical specifications, since it represents advertisers. W3C’s DNT working group is also close to consensus on technical specifications for DNT standards, according to multiple recent comments posted to an online poll. But it can be hard to decouple the technical side from the compliance side, Tien said. DAA’s talks will likely build off the work it has done the past two years educating Internet users on tracking practices, he said. For now, DAA’s working group is still in the planning phase. “Plans are being made for a future meeting, but the biggest thing that’s happening is that the DAA is basically going to take the temperature of folks that were in the room” and decide how, or if, the talks should proceed, Tien said. Expect a few more meetings and discussions in the near future, he said.

While FirstNet is still moving forward during the federal shutdown (CD Oct 8 p2), the FirstNet board meeting scheduled for Thursday in Concord, Calif., was canceled, an NTIA official said Friday.

Rogers Wireless had Canada-wide outages for its voice service Wednesday night. The company later blamed the outage on software problems, according to various news reports from Canada (http://bit.ly/1c4RPI0). “I recognize this service interruption was unacceptable for our customers,” said Nadir Mohamed, CEO of Rogers Communications (http://roge.rs/17uMnZU). “We worked as quickly as possible to restore service and it was gradually restored over the course of the evening. I sincerely apologize to all of our customers for this significant inconvenience and appreciate their understanding and patience."

Five civil liberty advocacy organizations filed a motion to participate in oral arguments (http://1.usa.gov/1hGltEj) backing five major tech companies’ effort to release more information about government surveillance requests (CD Oct 3 p5). The advocacy organizations “have substantial experience in advancing arguments rooted in the public interest in open judicial proceedings,” said the motion submitted to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. “Our participation in oral argument would, we submit, assist the Court in its deliberations, facilitate the public’s understanding and evaluation of government surveillance programs, and provide transparency to a judicial oversight process that has been the subject of considerable discussion, some accurate, some not.” The group had previously filed a brief in support of the tech companies, led by Google and Microsoft. The organizations hoping to participate are the First Amendment Coalition, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and TechFreedom.

The ITU is set to approve two new recommendations on the future coordinated use of 401-403 MHz spectrum and revisions to four other recommendations that deal with space research earth station parameters for use in interference calculations and coordination procedures, data relay satellite systems, and on the importance of the radio quiet zone of the L2 Lagrange point for future space-based radio-astronomy missions, said the ITU Radiocommunication Bureau director in a letter to administrations. Comments are due Dec. 10. The new recommendations provide information on the current and future use of non-geostationary data collection systems (DCS) in 401-403 MHz, including “portioning” to allow all DCS systems equal access to the spectrum, it said. One new recommendation provides protection criteria for non-geosynchronous orbit data collection platforms in 401-403 MHz, it said. The second provides basic partitioning and sharing conditions for future long-term coordinated use of data collection systems on geostationary and non-geostationary systems in the meteorological satellite service and the Earth exploration satellite service. Protection criteria were proposed on the operation of data relay satellite systems, the letter said. Draft changes account for protection criteria parameter values used by the U.S., China and Russia, and for system users, for operation of data relay satellite systems, it said. Another draft change provides information on use of the radio-quiet environment and stable orbits at the L2 Lagrange point, and reiterates the importance of preserving the environment for future space-based radioastronomy missions, it said.

Verizon needs to submit unredacted documents relating to “mislocation and basic service requirements” relevant to the “specific tariff amendments,” commented a group of public advocacy organizations to the New York Public Service Commission Friday (http://bit.ly/16VCP0w). Common Cause New York, Communications Workers of America, Consumers Union and the Fire Island Association said getting the telco’s unredacted documents regarding Verizon’s Voice Link service on Fire Island is “necessary and relevant” to the groups’ ability to prove its assertions about the service and a part of their right to receive information under New York’s Freedom of Information Law (FOIL). Verizon submitted redacted documents to the New York PSC on Oct. 4. Under FOIL, the groups said the public has the right to see documents in possession of a state agency and no relevance requirement needs to be established. The groups said they have a right to the information because it’s “not itself expensive to collect,” they're not Verizon’s competitors and the company has no competitors on Fire Island.

CBS Radio’s Audio AdCenter will help advertisers buy online audio advertising, it said in a Friday release (http://bit.ly/1bjsWHx). The “self-serve” platform enables small businesses to promote their products with customized messaging, it said. It facilitates advertising on CBS Radio’s 125 online streams. The platform includes a library of 2,000 audio ads and allows advertisers to choose a package based on price and reach, it said.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office postponed its meeting on copyright policy issues until Dec. 12, it said Friday (http://1.usa.gov/1bjsTvv). The meeting had been scheduled for Oct. 30. The PTO said the federal government shutdown was the reason for the delay. The deadline for public comments on its green paper remains Nov. 13, and the previous comment period through Oct. 15 no longer applies, given the postponement of the October meeting, it said.

Nearly 1,000 families in New Hampshire now have a broadband connection at home from Comcast Internet Essentials, said the company in a news release Friday (http://yhoo.it/GU9HKw). State House Speaker Terie Norelli and Education Commissioner Virginia Barry joined with teachers and school administrators to announce that in the last 23 months more than 220,000 low-income families across the U.S. will have a broadband connection through Internet Essentials, said Comcast. Comcast is working with six Boys and Girls Clubs in New Hampshire, Granite United Way and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Manchester to spread the word about Internet Essentials and provide digital literacy training, said the company. Cox is also extending its broadband adoption program by increasing speeds to 5 Mbps for customers in the Connect2Compete program, said C2C and the cable operator in a news release Thursday (http://prn.to/1cExYlT). They said new speeds will be up to five times faster for new and existing Cox customers who participate in the C2C program. Internet Essentials and C2C program are both corporate efforts to close the digital divide (CD July 9 p2).