Following spying concerns that emerged after former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden “revealed extensive U.S. government surveillance,” the U.S. tech industry as a whole underperformed, resulting in an economic impact far greater than the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation's initial $35 billion estimate, ITIF said in a news release Tuesday. That affected the cloud computing sector and the industry as a whole, ITIF said. In a report released Tuesday, ITIF cataloged a “wide range of specific examples of the economic harm that has been done to U.S. businesses as a result of unreformed government surveillance practices,” and “proposes a series of reforms designed to improve security, protect transparency, and increase cooperation and accountability in the global technology ecosystem,” the release said. “The U.S. government’s failure to meaningfully reform its surveillance practices has taken a serious economic toll on the U.S. tech sector and the total cost continues to grow each day,” said ITIF Vice President Daniel Castro, who co-wrote the report. “Foreign customers are increasingly shunning U.S. companies, and governments around the world are using U.S. surveillance as an excuse to enact a new wave of protectionist policies,” which is bad for U.S. companies, workers and the economy as a whole, Castro said. “Now that Congress has passed the USA Freedom Act, it is imperative that it turn its attention to reforming the digital surveillance activities that continue to impact our nation’s competitiveness,” he said. In its report, ITIF recommended policymakers “level the playing field for the U.S. tech sector” by implementing reforms like transparency about surveillance practices, opposing government efforts to weaken encryption or place backdoors in software, strengthening mutual legal assistance treaties with other nations, and combating anti-competitive practices by other nations, the release said. “Congress must decide how many American jobs it is willing to sacrifice in pursuit of intelligence gathering and find a better balance between economic interests and national security interests,” Castro said.
Wireless carriers have the technological capacity to curb prank calls to 911 from “nonservice-initialized” (NSI) handsets, the National Association of State 911 Administrators (NASNA) said in comments filed in FCC docket 08-51. Most carriers support an agency proposal that it drop a requirement that calls from NSI phones must go through to public safety answering points (PSAPs) (see 1504020047). Carriers could require that these phones be registered with the owner’s name and forward this information with the call to the PSAPs, NASNA said. Carriers also have the “technical means” to block just fraudulent calls, it said. These two solutions, “had they been implemented, could have resolved the fraudulent NSI call issue long ago," the group said. One NASNA member describes prank calls to PSAPs as a “plague,” the association said. “Accidental 911 calls may be lower than in the past since today’s smart phones do not have an ‘emergency call’ feature available from the lock screen like they used to, but it is no more difficult to make a fraudulent 911 call from a smart phone than from any other cellular device.”
The Illinois General Assembly voted to extend sunset dates for its Telecommunications Act, Video and Cable Competition Law and Emergency Telephone Systems Act (see 1505110041) from July 1 this year to July 1, 2017. The bill is awaiting signature by the governor. Amendments three and four of SB-0096 maintain safe harbor landline phone packages for current customers and new customers who meet a means test. It also expands an equipment program that provides gear to individuals with hearing and speech impairments to allow wireless customers to participate. For video and cable providers, the bill would extend the sunset for state-issued licenses for five years.
CTIA opposed calls from the public safety community to eliminate a requirement that “nonservice-initialized” (NSI) handsets -- cellphones no longer connected to a carrier network -- still must be able to connect to 911, said comments filed at the FCC. Public safety officials sought the change seven years ago, complaining about prank calls to public safety answering points (PSAPs), often from teenagers, that can't be traced to the caller (see 0803050126). In April the FCC sought comment (see 1504020047) and proposed to sunset the rule after a six-month transition. Comments were due Friday in docket 08-51.
CTIA said a broad cross-section of industry stakeholders agreed to work together in a group to advise the FCC on wireless 911 location accuracy implementation. The advisory group and working groups will “advise and provide guidance on implementation of key elements of the FCC’s Order, including a test bed for evaluating location technologies, national emergency address database, Z-axis location information and standards necessary to support these elements,” CTIA said Friday. The FCC approved new location accuracy rules, based on an industry road map, at its January meeting (see 1501290066). “Improved wireless 911 will require the commitment of dozens of stakeholders, including the public safety, people with disabilities [communities], state and local governments and the mobile industry, and we are very encouraged by the broad cross-section of groups that have come together to help implement the FCC’s aggressive timetable,” said Scott Bergmann, vice president-regulatory affairs at CTIA.
Personally identifiable information (PII) for some 4 million current and former federal employees that may have been compromised prompted the White House to push for cybersecurity legislation Friday. Experts said in interviews that the Office of Personnel Management breach isn't an outlier amid a slew of such intrusions at companies and government agencies. And while some blamed China for the OPM intrusion, others said that country may turn out to not be the culprit. OPM maintains personnel records for the federal workforce and the PII that may have been compromised includes names, Social Security numbers, date and place of birth, and current and former addresses, a spokesman told us.
Personally identifiable information (PII) for some 4 million current and former federal employees that may have been compromised prompted the White House to push for cybersecurity legislation Friday. Experts said in interviews that the Office of Personnel Management breach isn't an outlier amid a slew of such intrusions at companies and government agencies. And while some blamed China for the OPM intrusion, others said that country may turn out to not be the culprit. OPM maintains personnel records for the federal workforce and the PII that may have been compromised includes names, Social Security numbers, date and place of birth, and current and former addresses, a spokesman told us.
The FCC 's Emergency Alert System (EAS) Sixth Report and Order puts improvements in the EAS system based on the 2011 nationwide EAS test into effect, said the order released Wednesday. “Our rules governing these alerts must continue to evolve as legacy networks and services transition to next generation technologies,” the order said. The order adopts “six zeroes” (000000) as the national location code “pertaining to every state and county in the United States,” and the order requires EAS participants to use equipment capable of processing the code. Participants must also use equipment “capable of processing a National Periodic Test (NPT) event code for future nationwide EAS tests” so future national, regional, state and local activations are consistent, the order said. Test data must now be filed in an Electronic Test Report System that was constructed to be “a practical, accessible, and minimally burdensome tool for recording EAS dissemination data,” the order said. The data will be used for developing an FCC Mapbook for illustrating how EAS alerts are propagated throughout the country. EAS participants are also required to ensure that EAS visual messages are “readable and accessible to all members of the public,” the order said.
The California State Senate approved Democratic Sen. Mark Leno-sponsored SB-178, which modernizes California’s privacy laws to keep up with emerging technologies, in a 39-0 vote Wednesday, a Leno news release said. The bill, also known as the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act (Cal-ECPA), “protects Californians against warrantless government access to private electronic communications such as emails, text messages and GPS data that are stored in the cloud and on smartphones, tablets, laptops and other digital devices,” it said. “For what logical reason should a handwritten letter stored in a desk drawer enjoy more protection from warrantless government surveillance than an email sent to a colleague or a text message to a loved one?” Leno said. The bill was co-sponsored by Republican Sen. Joel Anderson and supported by more than a dozen tech companies including Apple, Facebook, Google and Twitter, the release said. California Executive Director of the Internet Association Robert Callahan said it’s time to update laws because Californians expect their inboxes to have the same safeguards as their mailboxes. The bill was backed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Electronic Frontier Foundation and the California Newspaper Publishers Association, it said. “Californians should be able to use smartphones, email, social networks and any other modern technology without worrying about whether their personal lives will remain private,” said Chris Conley, policy attorney with the ACLU of Northern California. “Especially after revelations of warrantless mass surveillance by the NSA, California needs to catch up with other states across the nation, including Texas and Maine, which have already updated their privacy laws for the modern digital world,” Conley said. “CalECPA is a comprehensive digital privacy bill that is consistent with the strong protections provided in the California Constitution,” said EFF Activist Adi Kamdar. “As technology increasingly becomes a part of our everyday lives, it is crucial to update state laws pertaining to electronic devices, emails, texts and more,” he said. The bill will be heard in the Assembly this summer, the release said.
The California State Senate approved Democratic Sen. Mark Leno-sponsored SB-178, which modernizes California’s privacy laws to keep up with emerging technologies, in a 39-0 vote Wednesday, a Leno news release said. The bill, also known as the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act (Cal-ECPA), “protects Californians against warrantless government access to private electronic communications such as emails, text messages and GPS data that are stored in the cloud and on smartphones, tablets, laptops and other digital devices,” it said. “For what logical reason should a handwritten letter stored in a desk drawer enjoy more protection from warrantless government surveillance than an email sent to a colleague or a text message to a loved one?” Leno said. The bill was co-sponsored by Republican Sen. Joel Anderson and supported by more than a dozen tech companies including Apple, Facebook, Google and Twitter, the release said. California Executive Director of the Internet Association Robert Callahan said it’s time to update laws because Californians expect their inboxes to have the same safeguards as their mailboxes. The bill was backed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Electronic Frontier Foundation and the California Newspaper Publishers Association, it said. “Californians should be able to use smartphones, email, social networks and any other modern technology without worrying about whether their personal lives will remain private,” said Chris Conley, policy attorney with the ACLU of Northern California. “Especially after revelations of warrantless mass surveillance by the NSA, California needs to catch up with other states across the nation, including Texas and Maine, which have already updated their privacy laws for the modern digital world,” Conley said. “CalECPA is a comprehensive digital privacy bill that is consistent with the strong protections provided in the California Constitution,” said EFF Activist Adi Kamdar. “As technology increasingly becomes a part of our everyday lives, it is crucial to update state laws pertaining to electronic devices, emails, texts and more,” he said. The bill will be heard in the Assembly this summer, the release said.