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Sen. Al Franken slams Facebook and Google's control of the press
Al Franken has again raised alarms about how Facebook and Google are misusing the "unprecedented power" they wield over how the public gets information. In a speech yesterday, he pointed out that while the firms control 75 percent of all news traffic referrals, both allowed Russia to interfere in US politics despite obvious signals. "The government has a responsibility to ensure that these corporations do not endanger our national security, our democracy or our fundamental freedoms," Franken said.
Uber and Lyft answer concerns about discrimination
A study published earlier this year documenting the discrimination ride-hailing passengers face compelled Senator Al Franken to call Uber's and Lyft's attention. Now, the Senator's office has published the companies' responses to the letter he sent on November 2nd. While it sounds like both services are already making changes, both stand by their practices. The study conducted by the National Bureau of Economic Research analyzed 1,500 rides in Boston and Seattle. It found that riders with black-sounding names usually have to wait 35 percent longer to be picked up and are twice more likely to have their ride canceled.
Senator Al Franken takes on Oculus over VR data mining
With all of the groundbreaking aspects of virtual reality come a slew of new privacy concerns. Oculus, for example, says in its privacy policy it will track information about your location, physical movements, and how you're using the Oculus Rift headset. Most of that is pretty standard hat for any technology product today, though the notion of tracking your movements is something unique to VR. Still, it was only a matter of time until Senator Al Franken, a consumer advocate who has made a point of pushing back against invasive privacy policies like Uber's, weighed in.
The GOP version of net neutrality leaves out Title II
While the FCC gets ready to vote on its new plan for net neutrality next month, a couple of Republicans in Congress are already showing off their own plan. Senator Jon Thune (R, SD) and Representative Fred Upton (R, MI) published an op-ed today outlining a proposal that they claim protects internet users while also spurring job creation and economic growth. They have 11 principles it should follow which include blocking, throttling and any kind of paid prioritization, however it differs from the approach backed by President Obama (surprise!) by classifying internet access as an information service under the Communications Act. It also mentions blocking the FCC from using Title II as a way to increase regulation over internet services by treating them as a utility, which some believe FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler will try to do at the vote next month.
Senator Al Franken questions Uber about its privacy policy, 'God View'
Uber's PR nightmare of a week is getting even worse, as Senator Al Franken has joined those questioning the service about its ethics and commitment to user privacy. In a letter (PDF), Franken laid out ten specific questions for CEO Travis Kalanick to answer by December 15th, aimed at nailing down things like who has access to the controversial "God View" tool, and what (if any) disciplinary steps the company took as a result of executive Emil Michael's comments about a plan to dig up dirt on journalists critical of Uber. Michael's comments, originally reported by Buzzfeed and reportedly aimed at PandoDaily's Sarah Lacy, started a round of critique of the company's culture that doesn't look like it will end anytime soon. While we wait for this to shake out, PandoDaily cites several examples (two articles and a series of tweets by Ashton Kutcher) of what it's seeing as a smear campaign against the media by Uber and its backers. Oh, for the old days when car-sharing services and their riders only had to worry about regulators, robberies and hammer attacks. [Image credit: Bloomberg via Getty Images]
Netflix gets specific about its battle with Comcast and opposition to the TWC merger
In the months since announcing a "mutually beneficial" interconnection agreement, Netflix and Comcast have seen eye to eye on very little. Throw in Comcast's attempt to swallow up Time Warner Cable and grow even larger, and you have a battleground for the two to air their disagreements. Netflix put its opposition to the merger in writing with its most recent earnings report earlier this week, spurring a response from Comcast, and now a pair of more detailed rebuttals from the streaming company (update: and yet another response from Comcast, this time claiming that Netflix itself caused the slowdowns). One is in a blog post by Vice President of Content Delivery Ken Florance, and another is a letter (PDF) by Vice President of Global Public Policy Christopher Libertelli in response to questions from Senator Al Franken. Both argue that Comcast's stance that it deserves payment is flawed because, among other reasons Netflix is still the one that must transmit its data to Comcast's network, where it stops without passing anywhere else.
EFF takes the fight to Carrier IQ, requests reinforcements
If we didn't love the EFF already, we'd be proposing marriage now that it's managed to reverse-engineer Carrier IQ's pernicious monitoring software. CIQ exists in phones in three parts, the app itself, a configuration file and a database -- where your keystrokes and coded "metrics" are logged before being sent to the company. Volunteer Jared Wierzbicki cracked the configuration profile and produced IQIQ, an Android app that reveals what parts of your activity are being monitored. Now the Foundation is posting an open call for people to share their data using the app in order to decipher what personal data was collected and hopefully decrypt the rest of the software. Hopefully, our thoughts can soon turn to who's gonna play the part of Trevor Eckhart in the All the Presidents Men-style biopic.
Senator Al Franken asks about Carrier IQ, the companies answer: the complete breakdown
Two weeks ago, smack-dab in the middle of the CarrierIQ saga, Senator Al Franken pounded his fist on the table and demanded answers. He wanted to know what CarrierIQ is all about and why several US mobile providers and manufacturers felt the need to install potentially invasive software on the phones of unsuspecting consumers. Senator Franken sent Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile, Samsung, HTC and Motorola a series of thirteen questions each, trying to get to the bottom of what each company is doing with the mysterious software. So far, all but T-Mobile and Motorola have complied with the Senator's wishes, as the two remaining companies were given until December 20th to have their responses submitted (we'll update this post as those are made public). As we reported previously, the Senator wasn't all too pleased by what the companies had to say. But what exactly is found in these pages and pages of documents? A few answers, and some more questions. We have pored through each company's letter, so follow us below as we break down their responses to each of the Senator's queries. Note: The level of involvement by the government seems to be making an impact, as Sprint is now disabling all Carrier IQ software on its devices so that data cannot be collected anymore. Its response to Senator Franken, however, should not be discounted as it provides insight into why the carrier's been a "valued customer" of CIQ's since 2006, and how it's been using the data it has collected over the past five years. Read on!
Senator Al Franken gets answers regarding CarrierIQ, still not satisfied
It's been two weeks since the CarrierIQ story caught the eye of Senator Al Franken, who swiftly put his fist down and began demanding answers from the companies that admitted to allowing the tracking software on their handsets, as well as CarrierIQ itself. The deadline for the companies to respond is over for all but two -- T-Mobile and Motorola were both given until December 20th -- and the good Senator's had the chance to look over their questionnaires. Here's what Sen. Franken had to say about what he read: I appreciate the responses I received, but I'm still very troubled by what's going on... People have a fundamental right to control their private information. After reading the companies' responses, I'm still concerned that this right is not being respected. The average user of any device equipped with Carrier IQ software has no way of knowing that this software is running, what information it is getting, and who it is giving it to -- and that's a problem. It appears that Carrier IQ has been receiving the contents of a number of text messages -- even though they had told the public that they did not. I'm also bothered by the software's ability to capture the contents of our online searches-even when users wish to encrypt them. So there are still many questions to be answered here and things that need to be fixed. Kind of makes you wonder exactly how each company answered the Senator's questions, right? Wonder no longer, our curious friends -- the responses in their fullness can be found on Senator Franken's website, linked below. In addition, tune in tomorrow when we'll dive into the responses in-depth. There's one question that we still want answered, though: what will each company do about the matter, now that it's caught public scrutiny? Our bet is on "not much."
German regulators seek details on Apple's use of Carrier IQ
Apple has already made a statement on the company's use of Carrier IQ, saying that "We stopped supporting Carrier IQ [a piece of software that tracks user activity] with iOS 5 in most of our products, and we're going to remove it completely in a future software update." Apparently that's not good enough for The Bavarian State Authority for Data Protection. The German data regulator requested today that Apple provide more information about the software and its use. Apple's statement yesterday noted that its use of Carrier IQ was limited to "diagnostic information" and was opt-in only. iOS users who have recently set up iOS 5 devices may remember the request to allow your device to send diagnostic and usage information to Apple. If you are currently sending data and wish to opt out, just go to General > About > Diagnostics & Usage on your iPhone and disable sending this information. Thomas Kranig, the head of the regulatory group, made the comment that "if Apple decided to cease the use [of Carrier IQ], all the better." He's not the only bureaucrat looking into Carrier IQ; Senator Al Franken (D-Minn) has called for Carrier IQ to disclose why the software tracks and stores the information that it does.
Senator Schumer blasts OnStar for 'brazen' privacy violation, calls for FTC investigation
Last week, OnStar issued a privacy notice informing customers that it would continue to collect data on vehicles still connected to its servers, even for those who have already canceled their subscriptions. The move elicited a chorus of protests from Democratic privacy advocates in the Senate, including Chris Coons, Al Franken and, most recently, Charles Schumer, who wrote a letter to the FTC yesterday calling for an investigation into what he sees as a bold violation of consumer rights. "By tracking drivers even after they've canceled their service, OnStar is attempting one of the most brazen invasions of privacy in recent memory," the New York Senator said. "I urge OnStar to abandon this policy and for FTC to immediately launch a full investigation to determine whether the company's actions constitute an unfair trade practice." Find out more about OnStar's new policy, after the break.
Senator Al Franken asks iOS developers to provide "clear and understandable privacy policies"
Following up on requests he made to Apple and Google in his hearing on mobile privacy earlier this month, US Senator Al Franken wrote a letter to the companies' respective CEOs asking them to require all software sold through the App Store and Android App Market to provide consumers with "clear and understandable privacy policies." Franken conceded that most customers never read the legal notices packaged with apps or think to look for a privacy statement for each (or any) app they install. He added that privacy notices alone wouldn't address all of the senator's privacy concerns. Even so, he observed that Apple and Google are market leaders capable of taking this "simple first step towards protecting [their] users' privacy." Requiring each app to transparently disclose what information it collects, how the data is used and who it is shared with would help attentive consumers, privacy advocates and federal authorities better understand how mobile software accesses and uses personal information. The senator concluded by urging Apple and Google to, at a minimum, make privacy policies a strict requirement for all location aware applications, implying it would be more feasible to address his privacy concerns within a subset of all software offered through Apple and Google's app catalogs. After all, Franken's hearings followed a highly publicized bug in iOS that caused location data to be stored in an unencrypted file on the device. Apple fixed the bug in a recent software update. Finally, Franken reminded Apple and Google of their commitments to protecting the privacy of their customers. "Apple and Google have each said time and again that they are committed to protecting users' privacy," Franken wrote. "This is an easy opportunity for your companies to put that commitment into action." [via The Loop]
Google's 1Gbps broadband offer brings out the crazy in municipal officers around the States (video)
You'll be aware by now that Google's cooking up an experimental high speed broadband network, which is currently in the process of collecting applications and nominations from interested communities. Given the limited coverage planned -- anywhere between 50,000 and 500,000 people -- there's understandably a lot of competition to get your small town on Google's radar, and city officials all around the USA have been doing their utmost to grab some publicity for their locale. Duluth mayor Don Ness can be seen above taking a dip in Minnesota's icy Lake Superior (with his unfortunate underling Richard Brown taking a fish to the face), while others have held parades, danced, invented a "Google Fiber" flavor of ice cream, and even swam with sharks for the sake of that precious fiber. Duluth, however, is the only place officially endorsed by a senator, and you can see Al Franken promote the city's virtues on video after the break. [Thanks, b3ast] Update: We've now also got video of the actual dip in the water, slide past the break to see it [Thanks, TheLostSwede].