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The Telecom Digest for Thu, 22 Mar 2018
Volume 37 : Issue 69 : "text" format

Table of contents
Class action suit vs. CenturyLink and DirecTV alleges customer data can be accessed via internet searchBill Horne
Frontier, union revive negotiations, agree to WV strike parametersBill Horne
Facebook's Surveillance MachineMonty Solomon
The Cable Industry Is Quietly Securing A Massive Monopoly Over American BroadbandMonty Solomon
Cops Wanting To Track Movements Of Hundreds Of People Are Turning To Google For Location RecordsMonty Solomon
Frontier vandalism impacts thousands of customersBill Horne
Frontier grilled about 911 service outageBill Horne
---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message-ID: <20180321220041.GA1754@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2018 18:00:41 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: Class action suit vs. CenturyLink and DirecTV alleges customer data can be accessed via internet search by Nat Levy A lawsuit against internet provider CenturyLink and AT&T-owned DirecTV alleges the companies fail to adequately protect personal customer data - to the point that it can be found through a simple internet search. The suit was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Seattle and seeks class action status. The plaintiff, James Jantos, a resident of King County, claims he discovered the issue last year when he ran an internet search on his phone number and came across a March 2017 bill for a bundle with CenturyLink and DirecTV he subscribed to that included his name, address, telephone number and other information. He performed other searches to make sure the information wasn't just available to him because it was his account. https://www.geekwire.com/2018/class-action-suit-vs-centurylink-directv-alleges-customer-data-can-accessed-via-internet-search/ -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20180321220332.GA1773@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2018 18:03:32 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: Frontier, union revive negotiations, agree to WV strike parameters By Max Garland Frontier Communications and the union representing its striking West Virginia workers have revived contract negotiations and agreed on an acceptable strike conduct, a step forward since the roughly 1,400 members of Communications Workers of America Local 142 began their strike March 4. Bargaining committees for CWA and Frontier met Monday and Tuesday to work on a contract agreement covering company workers in West Virginia and Ashburn, Virginia, according to Ed Mooney, vice president of CWA District 2-13. https://www.wvgazettemail.com/business/frontier-union-revive-negotiations-agree-to-wv-strike-parameters/article_28a6193e-a1ee-5989-87e9-5bf9714e45fe.html -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <3F70B6BE-AC03-4BB6-A514-5CEC7D6CE3F9@roscom.com> Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2018 09:29:39 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Facebook's Surveillance Machine Facebook's Surveillance Machine It's true that the Cambridge Analytica incident wasn't a security breach. It was something far worse. ... This wasn't a breach in the technical sense. It is something even more troubling: an all-too-natural consequence of Facebook's business model, which involves having people go to the site for social interaction, only to be quietly subjected to an enormous level of surveillance. The results of that surveillance are used to fuel a sophisticated and opaque system for narrowly targeting advertisements and other wares to Facebook's users. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/19/opinion/facebook-cambridge-analytica.html ------------------------------ Message-ID: <AD172D89-6AEB-468E-B8B9-4D45F3E48F85@roscom.com> Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2018 10:13:59 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: The Cable Industry Is Quietly Securing A Massive Monopoly Over American Broadband By Karl Bode >From the nobody-is-paying-attention dept Cable providers like Comcast and Charter continue to quietly secure a growing monopoly over American broadband. A new report by Leichtman Research notes that the nation's biggest cable companies added a whopping 83% of all net broadband subscribers last quarter. All told, the nation's top cable companies (predominately Charter Spectrum and Comcast) added 2.7 million broadband subscribers in 2017, while the nation's telcos (AT&T, Verizon, CenturyLink, Frontier) saw a net loss of 625,000 subscribers last year, slightly worse than the 600,000 subscriber net loss they witnessed in 2016. https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180314/09251639423/cable-industry-is-quietly-securing-massive-monopoly-over-american-broadband.shtml ------------------------------ Message-ID: <F77D2B20-DEB6-4890-9387-0D6B16766EF6@roscom.com> Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2018 10:15:19 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Cops Wanting To Track Movements Of Hundreds Of People Are Turning To Google For Location Records By Tim Cushing >From the wherein-'probable-cause'-is-defined-as-'maybe-this-might-be- helpful?' dept Police in Raleigh, North Carolina are using Google as a proxy surveillance dragnet. This likely isn't limited to Raleigh. Google harvests an astounding amount of data from users, but what seems to be of most interest to law enforcement is location info. https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180319/14581739453/cops-wanting-to-track-movements-hundreds-people-are-turning-to-google-location-records.shtml ***** Moderator's Note ***** Amendment IV The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/fourth_amendment Bill Horne Moderator ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20180321220848.GA1965@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2018 18:08:48 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: Frontier vandalism impacts thousands of customers By Carrie Hodousek CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Frontier Communications is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for recent vandalism in West Virginia. In the past two weeks, the company said there has been a significant increase in acts vandalism and damage to telephone cables and other equipment. http://wvmetronews.com/2018/03/19/frontier-vandalism-impacts-thousands-of-customers/ -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20180321221324.GA1995@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2018 18:13:24 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: Frontier grilled about 911 service outage By: Kimberly Kuizon SARASOTA, FL (FOX 13) - As executives from Frontier Communications tried to explain the service outage that crippled 911 centers across the region in January, Hillsborough County Commissioner Victor Crist came out swinging. "As a consumer and as a business owner, I've not been satisfied with the transition nor do I trust anyone from the company standing up here at the podium and saying 'trust me.' I'd like to see something that is guaranteed," said Commissioner Crist. http://www.fox13news.com/news/local-news/frontier-still-struggling-to-explain-way-forward-after-outage -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ ********************************************* End of telecom Digest Thu, 22 Mar 2018

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