“Australia Is Going To Make Facebook And Google Pay For The Journalism They Use” – BuzzFeed News and “French publishers win decisive battle against Google” – Politico EU. Australia’s Treasurer Josh Frydenberg explained in an op-ed that because Facebook and Google have not come to an agreement with the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission in … Continue reading Further Reading (5 May)
In a report that largely vindicates the Intelligence Community’s (IC) assessment of the 2016 election, a Senate committee continues with its investigation of Russian hacking with a heavily redacted fourth volume. The Republican-led committee rebuts the President’s assertions the IC was wrong and biased. The Senate Intelligence Committee has released the fourth of five … Continue reading Fourth Volume of Report in 2016 Russian Hacking Endorses IC’s Conclusions
Executive branch agencies veto a Chinese telecom operating in the U.S. because of “identified substantial and unacceptable national security and law enforcement risks associated with China Telecom’s operations, which render the FCC authorizations inconsistent with the public interest.” The “Team Telecom” agencies recommended that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) “revoke and terminate China Telecom … Continue reading Team Telecom Returns Negative Recommendation On China Telecom
Through the issuance of a press release, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra answered the calls for delaying enforcement of the “California Consumer Privacy Act” (CCPA) (AB 375), by “reminding consumers of their data privacy rights amidst the COVID-19 public health emergency.” Last month, some industry stakeholders pressured Becerra to delay enforcement of the CCPA because … Continue reading Becerra Deflects Calls To Delay Implementation of CCPA
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the Department of Defense (DOD) has failed to fully implement three separate initiatives to instill better cyber hygiene across the Pentagon and its component agencies. This report necessarily throws into question how well the DOD can ride herd on its component agencies and service branches to force the … Continue reading GAO Finds DOD Failed To Follow Through On Its Cyber Hygiene Initiatives
President Donald Trump has issued an executive order creating an inter-agency review body to determine whether foreign investment in U.S. telecommunications companies presents national security issues. However, the executive order merely formalizes and change the longstanding “Team Telecom” process through which proposed foreign investment in the U.S. telecommunications industry have been evaluated. Like the previous … Continue reading Executive Order Formalizes Review of Foreign Investment in Telecommunications
Every week, not surprisingly, there are more developments in the technology space than I can reasonably get to. And so, this week, at least, I’ve decided to include some of the odds and ends. To no great surprise, federal and state elected officials have been questioning Zoom on its security and privacy practices and demanding … Continue reading Odds and Ends (14 April)
The European Commission (EC) met in Brussels last week and issued a recommendation outlining what it hopes will be a unified approach throughout the European Union (EU) on how smartphones and data are used to fight the spread of COVID-19. The EC laid out an ambitious timeline and explained “[t]he first priority for the Toolbox … Continue reading EC Calls For EU-Wide Approach on Big Data and COVID-19
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued guidance to federal agencies to help them establish and maintain telework for their employees and contractors that comports with a recently revamped program to ensure that federal civilian agencies are limiting their cyber risk and exposure. The ad hoc guidance comes at … Continue reading CISA Guides Agencies On Telework Best Practices and Security
First things first, if you would like to receive my Technology Policy Update, email me. You can find some of these Updates from 2019 here. “Taiwan joins Canada in banning Zoom for government video conferencing” – CBC and “Video service Zoom taking security seriously: U.S. government memo” – Reuters. The island nation joined Canada in … Continue reading Further Reading (11 April)
Michael Kans 