FCC Chair proposes new data privacy rules for consumers

Federal Communications Commission chairman Tom Wheeler made his case for an ambitious plan to better defend consumer data privacy on Wednesday. His proposal would effectively govern how ISPs can leverage user data for marketing and advertising purposes in the same way that that the FCC already regulates data collected by your phone company.

“Think about it. Your ISP handles all of your network traffic,” Wheeler wrote in a Huffington Post op-ed. “That means it has a broad view of all of your unencrypted online activity — when you are online, the websites you visit, and the apps you use.”

Basically, since your ISP has access to every piece of unencrypted data you send along its network, it can build an incredibly detailed dossier of your online life. And, up until now, the ISP could use that information anyway it saw fit. Wheeler wants that to change.

“The information collected by the phone company about your telephone usage has long been protected information,” he continued. “Regulations of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) limit your phone company’s ability to repurpose and resell what it learns about your phone activity. The same should be true for information collected by your ISP.”

To that end, Wheeler has put forth a plan that would “empower consumers to ensure they have control over how their information is used by their Internet Service Provider.” In broad strokes, it would demand more transparency from ISPs on what information is being collected, give consumers the right to have meaningful control over that information, make it the ISP’s “duty” to secure and protect your data for the duration that it is on the ISP’s network.

In terms of user control, Wheeler proposes a three-tiered approach. The basic marketing of services would remain unchanged. “For example, your data can be used to bill you for telecommunications services and ensure your email arrives at its destination, and a broadband provider may use the fact that a consumer is streaming a lot of data to suggest the customer may want to upgrade to another speed tier of service,” Wheeler wrote. However, any data used for affiliate marketing or otherwise shared would require an active opt-out from the user and all other forms of marketing would need the user to explicitly opt in.

As for ensuring data security, Wheeler’s proposal would only require ISPs to take “reasonable steps”to defend user data from snooping. There’s actually a lot less wiggle room for ISPs in that directive than you’d expect. “At a minimum,” Wheeler wrote, “it would require broadband providers to adopt risk management practices; institute personnel training practices; adopt strong customer authentication requirements; to identify a senior manager responsible for data security; and take responsibility for use and protection of customer information when shared with third parties.”

Take note that this proposal only applies Internet Service Providers. Websites like Facebook or Twitter would be exempt from these rule changes — namely because their operations are regulated by the Federal Trade Commission. The FCC will vote on Wheeler’s proposition on March 31, after a period of public comment from the American people.

Via: Huffington Post

Source: FCC

Use your fingers to play in Vive’s world with the Manus VR glove

The Manus VR glove promises to take handheld controllers out of virtual reality, allowing players to use natural hand and finger motions within immersive, digital spaces. It’s compatible with the HTC Vive, taking advantage of that system’s Lighthouse positional tracking tech, and pre-orders for its first-ever developer kit open in Q2 this year. The kits cost $250 and should ship in Q3.

The Manus VR developer kit includes a USB dongle, a pair of washable gloves and two wrist-mounted holders for the HTC Vive’s controllers. The gloves have an eight-hour battery life and a programmable vibration motor for tactile feedback, plus an open-source SDK.

Manus VR is a Dutch team that started up in 2014 with the goal of creating the world’s first consumer VR glove (no, the Power Glove doesn’t count). Manus VR will be at the Game Developers Conference next week and so will Engadget, so stay tuned for some hands-on — or on-hands — impressions. And keep in mind, the HTC Vive starts shipping on April 5th.

On the Brink of Greatness: Social Video

Instagram videos cap out at 15 seconds. Vines? Six. As Steve Goldboom learns, though, those are still too long — by 13 and four seconds, respectively. Yep, the new episode of his mockumentary series On the Brink of Greatness is all about the ridiculousness of social video apps. Welcome to the future where celebrities are made overnight and all they need to do is have a door slammed into their face while someone points a cellphone at them.

Rhapsody’s music-streaming service comes to the Wii U

Rhapsody doesn’t often beat Spotify to the punch, but today it did. The streaming service has announced that its music catalog, which features over 30 million songs, is now available on Nintendo’s console. While the app is free to download from the eShop, you’ll need a Rhapsody account to get access to any tracks. That said, people who don’t have a subscription can sign up for a 30-day trial directly from the Wii U. This includes those of you who live outside the US, too, where Rhapsody operates under the Napster brand.

Source: Rhapsody

Yahoo streaming deal nets weekly NHL hockey games

Yahoo is no stranger to streaming live sports, and starting this week it’s adding hockey coverage. The company struck a deal with the National Hockey League (NHL) to offer live action from up to four out-of-market games in the US through the 2016-2017 season. The NHL “Game of the Day” will be available to stream free of charge (no cable subscription required), complete with in-game highlights for each matchup. Yahoo will also show “Best of the Day” and “Best of the Week” highlights alongside condensed games under the terms of the deal. What’s more, Yahoo Sports will still be the NHL’s official fantasy hockey partner.

Last year, Yahoo became the first site to nab exclusive streaming rights to a regular-season NFL game. The company also has deals in place for live and on-demand coverage of Major League Baseball (also labeled “Game of the Day”) and PGA Tour golf. Yahoo’s struggles are well-documented at this point, but that’s not stopping it from expanding its streaming library, especially when it comes to sports.

Source: Variety

An interview with one of NASA’s Curiosity Rover engineers

With his Elvis haircut, his fondness for cowboy boots and the way he’ll launch into soliloquies about big ideas like how to bend humanity toward collective self-improvement, Adam Steltzner might come off at first as some kind of hipster philosopher.

That’s one of the things that makes him such a memorable ambassador for NASA, his employer.

Steltzner is in fact an engineer with an improbable combination of geek cred and California cool who this October will have spent 25 years working at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He looks like a rock star — plays bass guitar, in fact — and can forcefully insist on humanity’s imperative to explore the stars and to press against the limits of the known universe with little prompting.

When he talks up the ambitious projects on the drawing board at JPL, he describes the place as a sort of intellectual and engineering combat zone. One where complex designs and the successful execution of missions are the result of brilliant scientists and engineers bashing their ideas against each other.

“We’re known for having a very intellectually aggressive culture,” he laughs. “I just came out of an all-day review yesterday with people from outside, from NASA headquarters, and they were chuckling at times because our interaction can be such a full-bore, bare-knuckled brawl.”

Small wonder, given the scope of some of the projects JPL has on the docket at the moment.

Steltzner’s current responsibilities include serving as chief engineer for the Mars 2020 project — a plan to send another rover to the red planet in 2020, this time with instruments that will collect samples of rock and soil and hermetically seal them for a future mission that will retrieve them and bring them home. That project will also offer a deeper look at the potential for life on Mars, Steltzner explains, by characterizing the geology and habitability of the Mars environment and to help prepare it for eventual human exploration.

The design of the Mars 2020 rover is based in part on that of Curiosity, the rover for which Steltzner a few years ago oversaw the team that designed the hardware for the “entry, descent and landing” phase. It was such a technical achievement — sending a vehicle hurtling through space and setting it down gently on the Mars surface — that Steltzner has published a book about Curiosity, called The Right Kind of Crazy.

Working on Curiosity in the JPL Spacecraft Assembly Facility

It details some of the challenges, setbacks and high-stress moments that came with the development of Curiosity’s Sky Crane landing system. That undertaking, he writes, taught him and his team a lot — that engineering tasks are dependent on “honestly facing the hard data,” and that in an organization as sprawling and complex as NASA, the best problems are “too complicated to have a clean equation that describes them.”

Meanwhile, he’s got plenty more to keep him busy. Steltzner’s also working on a new kind of parachute that would help carry humans to Mars, and developing robotics systems that will be used to explore Europa and Enceladus — the moons of Jupiter and Saturn thought to have the best chance of hosting alien life.

“Here’s what I believe to be true,” Steltzner tells Engadget. “Our human curiosity is one of our greatest attributes, and an outgrowth of that curiosity is our desire to explore that which we do not know. I don’t have something like a great business model about why we should explore space — in fact, there’s an old aerospace adage that goes, ‘The way to make a small fortune in aerospace is to start with a large one.’

“What I do know is that when we explore, it makes us better. It makes us bigger, and that is profound. Think about that. What is the effect culturally, societally, if everybody sits just a tiny bit taller because of something we do here? That’s not to be undersold. It’s difficult to quantify. I can’t give you ‘Oh, the GDP goes up by 1 percent when everyone is inspired to be a little more and to try to do a little more,’ but the effect is profound.”

The mysteries of the galaxy are indeed so profound that they convinced a young man who grew up in Sausalito, California, playing bass for several bands, to do something different with his life.

Coming home from a gig one night, Steltzner found himself preoccupied by the distinct and changing patterns of the stars he saw above him. He’d never shown much of a predilection for science and math as a student, but even so, something nagged at him — to the point that he decided to enroll in a nearby community college, signing up for a physics course.

He transferred to the University of California, Davis, after a few years and ended up majoring in mechanical engineering and design. It was the start of a preoccupation with the stars that’s shaped his career and ultimately brought him to NASA, to a coterie of like-minded space geeks working to explore the next frontier.

“It’s a big deal,” Steltzner says of Mars 2020. “It’s part of the science community, where every 10 years we do a survey and ask a research council, ‘What should we be doing?’ They’ve been telling us we need to bring samples back from Mars, so that’s on track now. It’s actually a great opportunity, because we’re leveraging a lot of the heritage and spare parts from the Curiosity rover.

“We just finished our PDR, our preliminary design review, at the beginning of [February], and we’re steaming ahead. There are a couple hundred people working on a wide range of activities and efforts. As chief engineer, I float. I spend almost all my time sitting in a room talking to other people about a technical problem. About trying to understand if we have a staffing shortfall. I look for holes and fill them myself if I can, or get people to move into jobs and move on to the next hole. I’m sort of a free safety, as it were.”

Founded in 1936, today JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology. It has a workforce of more than 5,000 and got $250 million for the Mars 2020 rover as part of the latest NASA budget Congress approved.

One thing that helps keep interest alive in the organization’s planned expeditions is how deeply a fascination with space has seeped into the zeitgeist. It also helps that private companies have emerged and begun to score thrilling successes on their own, with custom rockets and launches that become splashy media events.

For his part, Steltzner says he’s enthusiastic about private space ventures like Blue Origin and SpaceX.

“I love the privateers — I absolutely l-o-v-e love them,” he says. “Because they’re willing to do things differently. They’re invigorating space. Having said that, the challenge they face is in the end, eventually, someday they have to answer to investors who want them to be profitable endeavors. And that may someday exhaust their energy. But bring it on. Adam Smith was right: Competition is really important.”

So is keeping the public excited about space. It’s why JPL recently commissioned a beautiful series of retro-looking space-themed travel posters, created in partnership with Seattle-based design firm Invisible Creature. “Visit the Historic Sites … Mars … Multiple Tours Available,” reads one, presenting rockets in flight and designed in a way that makes you think you could be looking at the creation of a Madison Avenue ad shop in the ’50s.

It’s also why Steltzner wrote his book. He insists that the sustainability of the human race depends on our willingness to pursue schemes that sound crazy but are “the right kind of crazy” — things like sending rovers to Mars that could pave the way for eventual human habitation of the planet.

“We explore as a gesture of humanity,” he writes. “We do it because we can, and we do it as an affirmation of who and what we are. As a society, if we ever stop exploring, who will we be? I think we will be stagnant — not innovating, not building. It’s a formula not just for stagnation but for disaster. Which is why nurturing and supporting innate curiosity is still one of the most valuable survival tools we have.”

[Images: AP/Damian Dovarganes (Steltzner / Lead); NASA/JPL-Caltech (Spacecraft Assembly Facility); Nick_Rowland/Flickr (Starry sky); Nasa (Mars rover, Space Tourism posters)]

DOJ files a response to Apple in San Bernardino iPhone case

The Department of Justice is not happy with Apple’s refusal to unlock the iPhone 5c of San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook, as stated in a response filed today.

“By Apple’s own reckoning, the corporation — which grosses hundreds of billions of dollars a year — would need to set aside as few as six of its 100,000 employees for perhaps as little as two weeks,” the DOJ writes. “This burden, which is not unreasonable, is the direct result of Apple’s deliberate marketing decision to engineer its products so that the government cannot search them, even with a warrant.”

Apple and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have been engaged in an legal battle over unlocking the iPhone 5c used by Farook, who died during a shootout with authorities after the attack on December 2nd. The FBI ordered Apple to help it unlock the iPhone, but Apple has adamantly refused. Apple CEO Tim Cook has called the order “dangerous,” “unconstitutional” and “bad for America.”

The DOJ disagrees.

“The Court’s Order is modest,” today’s filing reads. “It applies to a single iPhone, and it allows Apple to decide the least burdensome means of complying. As Apple well knows, the Order does not compel it to unlock other iPhones or to give the government a universal ‘master key’ or ‘back door.’ … Apple’s rhetoric is not only false, but also corrosive of the very institutions that are best able to safeguard our liberty and our rights.”

Other tech companies have rallied around Apple in this case, including Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter, Google and Amazon. The DOJ has some words for these companies as well, claiming that Apple and its supporters are trying to alarm the courts and drum up a media frenzy about larger security issues.

“That is a diversion,” the department writes. “Apple desperately wants — desperately needs — this case not to be ‘about one isolated iPhone.’”

As it turns out, the DOJ is attempting to access the data on 12 separate iPhones across nine official requests. A US magistrate judge in New York recently ruled that the FBI could not force Apple to help authorities unlock an iPhone in a drug-trafficking case.

Source: CNBCDigital

Scientists find new bacteria species that can eat plastic

Plastic is a problem. We use too much of it — over 300 million tons are produced every year — and we can’t easily get rid of it (there’s that whole lack of biodegradability thing). But scientists in Japan may have come upon a solution to our environmental woes with a new bacteria, Ideonella sakaiensis 201-F6, that can fully break down PET, which is used to make plenty of plastic material. As Fast Company notes, this is the first time we’ve found bacteria that can completely degrade PET.

I. sakaiensis works by turning PET into another substance called MHET, and then it uses an additional enzyme to turn that into the basic components of PET. Additionally, the bacteria also gives us the option of turning the MHET into new PET material.

While that makes I. sakaiensis sound like some sort of miracle solution, there’s still one big issue to work through: It takes forever. Scientists found that it took six weeks to eat through a thin layer of PET. But, naturally, they’re also working on ways to speed up the process. They’ve already sequenced the bacteria’s genome, which could lead to building stronger and faster strains.

In the end, it could end up being our most useful tool in our war against plastic. Scientists have already found worms and microbes that can also break down plastic, but they’re not nearly as effective. There’s also the vast amount of plastics out there that don’t use PET, and which will require another method for destroying.

Via: Fast Company

Source: Science

Audiobooks Purchased From Apple Can Now Be Re-Downloaded Through iCloud

Apple recently updated its policy on audiobooks, allowing customers who have purchased audiobooks directly from Apple to re-download them using iTunes in the Cloud through iBooks on iOS devices or through iTunes on a Mac or PC. Audiobooks are now listed in a customer’s iBooks purchase history and can be re-downloaded just like standard e-books.

According to a support document on downloading past purchases, the change was made on March 3. Prior to that date, audiobooks could not be re-downloaded through iCloud and were only available if they were included in a backup made on a Mac or PC.

A second support document outlining which iTunes purchases can be downloaded again by country has also been updated to reflect the change. In 22 countries, including the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Canada, and much of Europe, purchased audiobooks can be accessed at any time through a user’s Purchased history.

In iOS 9.3, audiobooks are also available to be automatically downloaded to all iOS devices when purchased. In the Settings app under iTunes & App Store, “Books & Audiobooks” is now an option under Automatic Downloads. Previously, this section listed only books, leaving out audiobooks.

iOS 9.3 will also streamline the iBooks “Purchased” tab with deeper organizational options that sort books by category and it enables Family Sharing for audiobooks.

Apple has been gradually improving support for its selection of audiobooks. In iOS 8.4, audiobooks became available to purchase and listen to through the iBooks app, making them much more accessible. Prior to that date, audiobooks had to be purchased through the iTunes store and listened to using the Music app.

Audiobooks can be re-downloaded on all iOS devices immediately. Automatic Downloads of audiobooks will be enabled with iOS 9.3, set to be released to the public in the near future.

(Thanks, William!)

Related Roundup: iOS 9
Tag: iBooks
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U.S. Government Files Motion Asking Court to Deny Apple’s Opposition to iPhone Unlocking Request

Prosecutors representing the United States government today filed another document (via The Verge) to support the motion to compel Apple to unlock the iPhone used by San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook, calling the original order a “modest” request that would not result in a universal “master key” and dismissing many of Apple’s legal arguments.

The document says Apple’s rhetoric is false and “corrosive of the very institutions that are best able to safeguard our liberty and our rights.” Apple’s efforts, and those of its supporters, to highlight the wider issues the order could have on encryption, are a “diversion,” says the government.

Apple and its amici try to alarm this Court with issues of network security, encryption, back doors, and privacy, invoking larger debates before Congress and in the news media. That is a diversion. Apple desperately wants–desperately needs–this case not to be “about one isolated iPhone.” But there is probable cause to believe there is evidence of a terrorist attack on that phone, and our legal system gives this Court the authority to see that it can be searched pursuant to a lawful warrant. And under the compelling circumstances here, the Court should exercise that authority, even if Apple would rather its products be warrant-proof.

Unsurprisingly, the government argues that the All Writs Act does, in fact, give the courts the power to compel Apple to unlock the iPhone, disagreeing with Apple’s argument that Congress’ choice not to expand on the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act serves as evidence Congress has limited the assistance companies must provide to law enforcement.

It also walks through several prior court cases in an effort to challenge many of Apple’s claims, including that no company has been conscripted to produce code for the government and that it would be an undue burden for Apple to create new software for the FBI.

Apple is accused of “deliberately” raising technological barriers preventing the government from obtaining the data on the iPhone through a lawful warrant. “Apple alone can remove those barriers so the FBI can search the phone,” reads the document, “and it can do so without undue burden.” Apple is “one of the richest and most tech-savvy companies in the world,” and is “more than able to comply with the AWA order.” The government goes on to suggest that there’s no evidence a narrow order could apply to additional devices in the future, but if it does, Apple is “more than able to comply with a large volume of law-enforcement requests.”

Next, contrary to Apple’s stated fears, there is no reason to think that the code Apple writes in compliance with the Order will ever leave Apple’s possession. Nothing in the Order requires Apple to provide that code to the government or to explain to the government how it works. And Apple has shown it is amply capable of protecting code that could compromise its security. […]

Far from being a master key, the software simply disarms a booby trap affixed to one door: Farook’s.

Several sections in the motion also disagree with the notion that the software could be used on other devices and could fall into the hands of hackers or lead to Apple being forced to comply with data requests from foreign governments.

Apple speculates that if it submits to a lawful order to assist with a constitutional, warranted search of a consenting customer’s phone in America, Apple will have no choice but to help totalitarian regimes suppress dissidents around the globe, and “hackers, criminals, and foreign agents” will have access to the data on millions of iPhones. This putative public burden, Apple argues, is a basis to relieve it from the Order. Apple’s fears are overblown for reasons both factual and legal.

Apple and the U.S. government have been engaged in a fierce public battle over the order that would require Apple to help the FBI break into the iPhone of San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook by creating new software to circumvent passcode restrictions on the device. Apple believes complying with the demand would set a dangerous precedent that could lead to the overall weakening of encryption on smartphones and other electronic devices.

Apple executives, including Tim Cook, Eddy Cue, and Craig Federighi have all given public interviews in recent weeks explaining Apple’s stance, positioning the government’s request as an overreach of power that could snowball into a continual stream of invasive demands impacting the privacy rights of its customers across the world.

Apple is scheduled to appear in court to fight the order on March 22, the day after its planned March 21 event that will see the debut of the iPhone SE and the new 9.7-inch iPad.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tag: Apple-FBI
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