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The Telecom Digest for November 2, 2013
Volume 32 : Issue 223 : "text" Format
====== 32 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======
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Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
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we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands
against crime. - Geoffrey Welsh
See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details
and the name of our lawyer, and other stuff of interest.
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Date: Wed, 30 Oct 2013 22:33:31 -0700 (PDT)
From: Neal McLain <nmclain.remove-this@and-this-too.annsgarden.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Senate confirms Tom Wheeler as FCC's new chairman
Message-ID: <5f572d18-4069-42e8-8130-af2c3d2ca1d7@googlegroups.com>
By Steven Musil, CNET, October 29, 2013
Wheeler unanimously confirmed after Sen. Ted Cruz lifts
objection over concerns about Wheeler's views on greater
campaign finance regulations.
Tom Wheeler, a former telecommunications lobbyist, was
unanimously confirmed as the new chairman of the FCC late
Tuesday, according to The Hill.
...
Wheeler was nominated in May by President Obama to replace
Julius Genachowski, who had headed up the agency since
2009. Since Genachowski's departure, Mignon Clyburn has
been serving as acting FCC Chairwoman.
Wheeler has been around telecommunications policy circles
for years and has served as a lobbyist for the cable
industry's trade group, the National Cable and
Telecommunications Association, and the wireless industry's
trade association, CTIA-The Wireless Association. He spent
12 years as the head of the CTIA. He also has policy
experience within the government, working as a member of
the FCC's Technological Advisory Council.
Continued:
http://tinyurl.com/kjdwo7h
This article briefly mentions Wheeler's association with "the cable industry's
trade group, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association." My
recollection is that Wheeler served as president of the association, then
known as the "National Cable Television Association." During those years, the
industry was in continuous legal disputes with the broadcast industry over
carriage rights and with copyright owners alleging infringement.
One of Wheeler's most vocal opponents was Jack Valenti, at the time president
of the Motion Picture Association of America. Valenti claimed that cable TV
companies were infringing on copyrighted motion pictures by retransmitting
them without paying royalties.
Valenti even wrote a book about it. In one famous encounter, Wheeler and
Valenti were both speakers on an industry panel. When the came time for
Wheeler to speak, he began by congratulating Valenti on his new book. In
fact, he said (pulling out a stack of papers) "I liked it so much that I
xeroxed it!"
Neal McLain
Date: Fri, 1 Nov 2013 10:01:30 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Warily, Schools Watch Students on the Internet
Message-ID: <p06240802ce991806d441@[10.0.1.8]>
Warily, Schools Watch Students on the Internet
By SOMINI SENGUPTA
October 28, 2013
SAN FRANCISCO - For years, a school principal's job was to make sure
students were not creating a ruckus in the hallways or smoking in the
bathroom. Vigilance ended at the schoolhouse gates.
Now, as students complain, taunt and sometimes cry out for help on
social media, educators have more opportunities to monitor students
around the clock. And some schools are turning to technology to help
them. Several companies offer services to filter and glean what
students do on school networks; a few now offer automated tools to
comb through off-campus postings for signs of danger. For school
officials, this raises new questions about whether they should - or
legally can - discipline children for their online outbursts.
The problem has taken on new urgency with the case of a 12-year-old
Florida girl who committed suicide after classmates relentlessly
bullied her online and offline.
Two girls - ages 12 and 14 - who the authorities contend were her
chief tormentors were arrested this month after one posted a Facebook
comment about her death.
Educators find themselves needing to balance students' free speech
rights against the dangers children can get into at school and
sometimes with the law because of what they say in posts on Facebook,
Twitter and Tumblr. Courts have started to weigh in.
In September, a federal appeals court in Nevada, for instance, sided
with school officials who suspended a high school sophomore for
threatening, through messages on Myspace, to shoot classmates. In
2011, an Indiana court ruled that school officials had violated the
Constitution when they disciplined students for posting pictures on
Facebook of themselves at a slumber party, posing with
rainbow-colored lollipops shaped like phalluses.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/29/technology/some-schools-extend-surveillance-of-students-beyond-campus.html
Date: Fri, 1 Nov 2013 10:01:30 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Senator Raises Questions About Protecting Student Data
Message-ID: <p06240806ce99196a27a1@[10.0.1.8]>
Senator Raises Questions About Protecting Student Data
By NATASHA SINGER
OCTOBER 22, 2013
A lawmaker who is a staunch advocate of children's privacy is
investigating whether the data collection and analysis practices of
the growing education technology industry, a market estimated at $8
billion, are outstripping federal rules governing the sharing of
students' personal information.
On Tuesday, Senator Edward J. Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, sent
a letter to Arne Duncan, the Secretary of Education, about how K-12
schools are outsourcing management and assessment of student data,
including intimate details like disabilities, to technology vendors.
The letter cited an article in The New York Times this month about
concerns over the proliferation of student data to companies.
...
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/22/senator-raises-questions-about-protecting-student-data/
-or-
http://goo.gl/IgWIsN
***** Moderator's Note *****
The junior Senator from Massachusetts is still working off the old
playbook he used in the house, and hasn't yet picked up the finer
points of public relations.
Bill Horne
Moderator
Date: Fri, 1 Nov 2013 10:01:30 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: The Information-Gathering Paradox
Message-ID: <p06240803ce99186bebe5@[10.0.1.8]>
The Information-Gathering Paradox
By SOMINI SENGUPTA
October 26, 2013
SAN FRANCISCO - CONSUMER trust is a vital currency for every big
Internet company, which helps to explain why the giants of Silicon
Valley have gone to great lengths in recent months to show how hard
they are fighting back against government surveillance. Companies
have released transparency reports, many for the first time,
enumerating how many times law enforcement agencies demand user data;
their executives have issued blistering statements; and several
firms, including Facebook and Google, have filed lawsuits in a bid to
reveal more about secret government orders.
All the while, though, a central contradiction has become ever harder
to conceal. The Internet industry, having nudged consumers to share
heaps of information about themselves, has built a trove of personal
data for government agencies to mine - erecting, perhaps
unintentionally, what Alessandro Acquisti, a Carnegie Mellon
University behavioral economist, calls "the de facto infrastructure
of surveillance."
Nearly five months after Edward J. Snowden, the former National
Security Agency contractor, went public with classified documents
detailing the agency's widespread spying, the Internet industry has
only sharpened its efforts to track users online, which it considers
essential to profitability. Behaviorally targeted advertising is the
principal revenue source for a host of online companies.
Earlier this month Google announced plans to feature users' names,
photos and posts to promote products in Web ads. Facebook recently
expanded its search offerings and made it harder to hide from
strangers trying to find you. Meanwhile, digital advertising networks
are developing sophisticated new ways to track consumers on
cellphones, gleaning intimate insights into who you are and what you
like. And Twitter, which recently announced plans for a public
offering, has partnered with a company that tracks whether ads on
Twitter can influence what you buy offline.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/27/sunday-review/the-information-gathering-paradox.html
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