Featured Blogs

What Your ISP (Probably) Knows About You

Earlier this week, I came across a working paper from Professor Peter Swire - a highly respected attorney, professor, and policy expert. Swire's paper, entitled "Online Privacy and ISPs", argues that ISPs have limited capability to monitor users' online activity. The paper argues that ISPs have limited visibility into users' online activity for three reasons: (1) users are increasingly using many devices and connections, so any single ISP is the conduit of only a fraction of a typical user's activity; (2) end-to-end encryption is becoming more pervasive, which limits ISPs' ability to glean information about user activity; and (3) users are increasingly shifting to VPNs to send traffic. more

CEO Chehade, Senator Cruz, and the IANA Transition End Game

On February 4, 2016, U.S. Senator (and Republican Party Presidential nomination contender) Ted Cruz, joined by Senators James Lankford and Michael Lee, dispatched a letter to ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade stating that "we were surprised and dismayed to learn that you have agreed to co-chair a high-level advisory committee for the World Internet Conference, which is organized by the Chinese government, while you serve as the Chief Executive Officer of ICANN under contract with the United States Government". The letter continued by posing a series of nine questions... more

ICANN 55 Next Week In Marrakech - What to Expect

As you may know, ICANN holds three public meetings every year. The most recent one, ICANN 54, was held in Dublin... So the next ICANN meeting is being held in Marrakech, Morocco starting Saturday, March 5th through March the 10th. Up until now all three meetings were the same length and had the same basic structure. However, from this year onwards, that'll change. How that will play out in reality, however, is anyone's best guess. more

Whatever Happened with Namespace Collision Issues and the gTLD Round of 2012

The new gTLD program of 2012, based on the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) policy recommendations of 2007, has been both a success and mess. In terms of its success, many new and innovative names are being introduced on the Internet, more most every day. The mess has involved ad-hoc, independent decisions by the Board and implementation decisions by ICANN staff that have resulted in variety of problems including a broken community evaluation process... more

Decoding the Cellular IoT Acronym Alphabet Soup

Do you know what all these acronyms and abbreviations mean related to cellular networks and the Internet of Things (IoT)? MTC, Cat-0, Cat-1, Cat-M1, LTE-M, NB-IoT, EC-GSM, LPWA, eDRX, PSM... I certainly didn't, but Tuomas Tirronen at Ericsson Research wrote a blog post titled "Cellular IoT alphabet soup" where he explained all of this for those of us who might be interested. more

Three Reasons Why Apple Didn’t Have to Unlock a Phone

The US government is demanding Apple unlock iPhones in about a dozen cases beside the San Bernardino one. In a strikingly similar case, Judge James Orenstein in Brooklyn rejected the government's request for three separate reasons. In the decision the judge refers several times to the San Bernardino case, and it is clear he expects this decision to be an important precedent for that one. more

The IANA Stewardship Transition: All Eyes Turn Toward ICANN 55 in Marrakech

When in March 14, 2014, the NTIA announced its intention to step away from its historical oversight role over the IANA functions, something extraordinary happened. A global dialogue immediately ensued. The first part of this dialogue is expected to come to an end in the forthcoming ICANN annual meeting in Marrakech next week. After two years of vigorous discussions, the Internet community says it is now ready to move to the next part of the process - implementation. more

Report Finds Arabic Domain Names Ripe for Growth

Since ????. (.web in Arabic and pronounced "dot shabaka") launched as the world's first new Top-Level Domain in 2014, we've faced many hurdles in growing adoption of Arabic domain names. From universal acceptance and general awareness issues to a lack of Registrars with Arabic retail interfaces -- the challenges have been numerous and varied. However, according to a new ICANN-commissioned study released this week - one of the first to investigate the Middle East DNS sector - there is much to celebrate too. more

How Much Has ICANN Spent On The IANA Transition?

ICANN critics often focus on ICANN's expenditure. The organisation's overall budget had been growing for years prior to the new TLD program launch. However with the new TLD launch it mushroomed very quickly, with the organisation collecting $185k per application. With 1930 applications that gave them $357,050,000 ... ICANN's overall budget is big and how it decides to spend that money will always be subject to quite a bit of scrutiny. more

Mobile Is Not Everything (and That’s OK)

As I type these words, I am perched on one of the benches in the main thoroughfare of the cavernous venue hosting Mobile World Congress (MWC). Above me is a video screen warning me of the perils of the infamous local pickpockets, so I know I'm definitely in Barcelona! In its current form, MWC has been the mainstay event of the telecoms business for a decade, and its roots go back to the late 1980s. The slogan of this year's event is "Mobile is Everything". I believe this phrase is a symptom of an industry suffering from dangerous strategic drift. Here's why. more

ICANN Accountability Proposal Enhances Power of Governments Over Internet, Risks IANA Transition

While most of the recommendations included in the Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability (CCWG-Accountability) Report are much needed reforms to ICANN's accountability mechanisms, the proposal also contains a fundamental flaw, which jeopardizes its overall acceptance and risks delaying the IANA transition process further: it changes the role of governments from "advisory" to "decisional" over ICANN's governance, and it separately enhances the power of governments over ICANN's board of directors. more

IPv4 Market Outlook

When 2015 began, there were several million IPv4 numbers still in the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) IPv4 free pool, ARIN was processing 4-5 unique IPv4 transfer transactions per month, and fewer than 5 million numbers had been transferred publicly in the prior 12 months. The end of 2015 told a different story. In late September, the ARIN free pool was depleted. more

Apple vs FBI: Apple and Others to Argue on the Hill

Tomorrow afternoon at 1pm EST Apple will be giving testimony to the House Judiciary Committee. The session that Apple and others will be taking part in is aptly named, The Encryption Tightrope: Balancing Americans' Security and Privacy In common with other hearings the various witnesses called to speak have already submitted their written testimony, so we can already look at it and analyse it. more

Which Comes First, the Trademark or Domain?

For years, the question of exactly when to register a domain name has been one asked by legal departments, as they've sought to formalize their internal processes. If you were to think about it logically, it would make most sense to register it after the trademark had been cleared. After all, why bother to register a domain, if you aren't going to use it to support a product, service or campaign? more

Moving Forward Towards NetMundial 5+: Focus on Principles and Roadmap

The 3rd meeting of the Inaugural Coordination Council of the Net Mundial Initiative (NMI.CC), hosted by Telefonica in Madrid on February 27, 2016, paved the way for the second phase of the innovative NMI platform. The council discussed how to adjust the strategic orientation and the structural design of the initiative, so that future activities are more focused on implementation of the Sao Paulo principles and roadmap. more