Internet/Broadband

Soon after President Donald Trump took office with a pledge to cut regulations, Republicans in Congress killed an Obama-era rule restricting how broadband companies may use customer data such as web browsing histories. But the rule may be finding new life in the states. Lawmakers in almost two dozen state capitols are considering ways to bolster consumer privacy protections rolled back with President Trump's signature in April. The proposals being debated from New York to California would limit how AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast use subscribers' data.

The privacy rule is just one example of states resisting policy changes wrought under the Trump administration. 35 states are pressing for the right to enforce laws guaranteeing internet service speeds live up to advertisements. "If the federal government lags, the states have to lead. And that's what we're doing," said Tim Kennedy, a Democratic New York state senator. Kennedy introduced a bill to prohibit internet service providers from selling customer web searches, social media histories and other personal information to third parties -- the crux of the nixed federal regulation.

An interview with Vint Cerf, the co-creator of tech that makes the internet work.

Cerf said, "My biggest concern is to equip the online netizen with tools to protect himself or herself, to detect attempts to attack or otherwise harm someone. The term 'digital literacy' is often referred to as if you can use a spreadsheet or a text editor. But I think digital literacy is closer to looking both ways before you cross the street. It’s a warning to think about what you’re seeing, what you’re hearing, what you’re doing, and thinking critically about what to accept and reject...Because in the absence of this kind of critical thinking, it’s easy to see how the phenomena that we’re just now labeling fake news, alternative facts [can come about]. These [problems] are showing up, and they’re reinforced in social media."

To support the 2015 Open Internet Order (OIO), the Federal Communications Commission cited four potential violations of network neutrality over the previous ten years, only two of which it explicitly challenged. Why, then, did the FCC say a rule was desperately needed and Broadband Internet Access Service (BIAS) providers say the rule would be devastating given that their past behavior meant that the rule would not affect them much? To mix common sense with econspeak, why did anyone care about the Order if it was not binding? Tim Brennan, professor in the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and former FCC Chief Economist, addresses this question and explores the potential effects of the OIO 2015 rule in “The Post-Internet Order Broadband Sector: Lessons from the Pre-Open Internet Order Experience.” In particular, he explores what lessons policymakers might learn from the handful of cases as they continue to grapple with net neutrality.

This post is the fourth in a series featuring the contents of a recent special issue of the Review of Industrial Organization, organized by the Technology Policy Institute and the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Technology, Innovation, and Competition. The short answer to why the Order matters if it doesn’t matter is that it is likely to affect future business models and network development. The longer answer is more nuanced. In summary, Brennan notes that the current net neutrality debate can be informed by past events, and should include additional issues in the present. He contends that things might not change all that much, under 2015 OIO or future net neutrality rules, but policymakers must consider how BIAS providers will be incentivized to innovate while stuck between edge providers and end users.

The Federal Communications Commission is currently considering reversing so-called "Network Neutrality." "Minneapolis, the elimination of Net Neutrality might be good for them. I think up here in North Dakota it might be detrimental. I don't see any positives for us," Ronald Marsh, Chair of the University of North Dakota's Computer Science Department said. He says repealing Net Neutrality could lead to an even tighter monopoly on the internet in our area. Resulting in lower speeds and higher costs. "To squeeze every penny they can out of the customer. I think that's what the end result will be is not immediately but 5 years, 10 years down the road there will be the haves and the have nots when it comes to the internet," Marsh said.

Cox, the third largest US cable company, started charging overage fees to customers in four more states.

Cox, which operates in 18 states with about six million residential and business customers, brought overage fees to Arizona, Louisiana, Nevada, and Oklahoma. Cox was already enforcing data caps and overage fees in Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and Ohio. California, Rhode Island, and Virginia technically have monthly caps but no enforcement of overage fees, according to Cox's list of data caps by location. Massachusetts and North Carolina seem to be exempt from the Cox data caps altogether. CenturyLink recently ended an experiment with data caps and is giving bill credits to customers in the state of Washington who were charged overage fees during the yearlong trial.

When residents at San Francisco’s Hunters Point East and West low-income, federally-subsidized housing complex went online, many had access to free gigabit speed internet for the first time.

This isn’t wi-fi that’s shared throughout the building, but rather each individual unit is getting its own internet connection. Hunters Point is the first housing development to get the service, where nearly 300 people live across 212 units in 27 buildings. But by the end of 2018, more than 1,000 additional units of San Francisco income-subsidized housing will receive free gigabit internet, servicing nine more developments in the Tenderloin neighborhood and four more in the Bayview area. The internet provider behind the effort is local San Francisco outfit Monkeybrains, a company that specializes in fast internet transmitted through wireless antennas. Instead of breaking up a sidewalk to lay fiber or cables, Monkeybrains beams high-speed internet through antennas installed on rooftops. For the Hunters Point buildout, technicians are stringing cable from the rooftop antennas to connect every unit.

The operators of a lead generation business have agreed to settle charges brought by the Federal Trade Commission that the company misled consumers into filling out loan applications and sold those applications – including consumers’ sensitive data – to virtually anyone willing to pay for the leads.

In its complaint, the FTC alleges that Blue Global Media, LLC and its CEO Christopher Kay operated dozens of websites that enticed consumers to complete loan applications that the defendants then sold as “leads” to a variety of entities without regard for how the information would be used or whether it would remain secure. The websites, which operated under such names as 100dayloans.com, 1hour-advance.com, cashmojo.com and clickloans.net, offered services to consumers seeking a variety of loans, including payday and auto loans. The company claimed it would search a network of 100 or more lenders, and connect each loan applicant to the lender that would offer them the best terms.

The FTC charged that, in reality, the defendants:

• sold very few of the loan applications to lenders;
• did not match applications based on loan rates or terms; and
• sold the loan applications to the first buyer willing to pay for them.

Access Now and the Electronic Frontier Foundation are among those signing onto an amicus brief supporting Facebook in its efforts to protect the anonymity of its users and alert them if they are under investigation. According to Access Now, the government, which is investigating Trump inauguration protests that turned violent, has requested that Facebook unmask the identities of three users under a gag order, which means the company can't tell the people in question about the warrants. "First, the non-disclosure order is both a prior restraint and a content-based restriction on speech and is therefore subject to the most demanding First Amendment scrutiny," the groups write. "Second, the underlying warrants are apparently calculated to invade the right of Facebook's users to speak and associate anonymously on a matter of public interest."

Democrats have promised to take technology issues like network neutrality and broadband privacy to the voters in the 2018 midterms. And fresh off the July 4 holiday, many of them will be doing just that at town hall events across the country. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) is hosting an event with Federal Communications Commission member Mignon Clyburn on July 7 focusing on net neutrality and "rules put in place during the Obama administration protecting a free and open internet [that] have come under attack." Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR), Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Jerry Moran (R-KS) are also huddling with constituents for events that may include talk of broadband privacy and internet surveillance.