Amidst U.S. Congress approval of legislation reversing Internet privacy rules, Major U.S. Internet providers, Comcast, Verizon and AT&T, said they would not sell customers’ individual internet browsing information. more
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has been measuring computer usage on farms and publishes the results every two years in its Farm Computer Usage and Ownership report. The most recently released report for 2019 was compiled by asking questions to 20,000 farmers. This is a large sample from the more than 2 million farms in the country. more
"Sen. Ted Cruz wants to engineer a United States takeover of a key Internet organization, ICANN, in the name of protecting freedom of expression," said Tim Berners-Lee and Daniel Weitzner in a co-op piece today in the Washington post. more
Google has launched a "Take Action" page to urge people to speak out amidst the gathering of the UN's International Telecommunications Union (ITU) taking place next month in Dubai to update global telecom rules for the first time since 1988. Google and others have raised concern as some countries may see this as an opportunity to set up new rules for the internet. more
ICANN's request for comment on amending the .com registry agreement to restore Verisign's pre-2012 pricing flexibility ended last Friday and, with 8,998 responses submitted by stakeholders, may have been a multistakeholder version of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. Public interest in .com pricing is understandably high but the sheer volume of responses – nearly three times the number of comments submitted this summer on deregulating .org pricing – also suggests a show of force... more
Almost three years ago, I published a blog post on CircleID titled "Internet Governance: Why Africa Should Take the Lead." I argued that African Internet stakeholders use a 'wait and see approach' in matters as critical as Internet governance," and that African voices are missing in key Internet governance discussion fora. Additionally, I suggested that some reasons for this approach, including that Africa lacks well-trained Internet governance experts and Africans see foreign affairs and international relations as an East versus West dynamic. more
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) proposed on Wednesday a do-not-track list for the Web. "The proposal, which would allow consumers to opt out of having their online activities tracked, was included as part of the agency's preliminary report on consumer privacy," reports Gautham Nagesh in The Hill. "The report is intended as a framework for any potential privacy legislation from Congress but stops short of explicitly calling for a legislative solution." more
Answering questions at the Internet Association's Virtuous Circle conference last week, Secretary Kerry presented the U.S. Department of State's effort to prioritize global digital economy issues abroad in order to reflect the growing importance of these issues in both economic and foreign policy. The State Department has made real progress on this initiative in the last year and hopes to continue our momentum going forward. more
Experts, companies and civil society groups around the world ask governments to support strong encryption -- and reject proposals that would undermine the digital security it provides. more
At a hearing in the Irish High Court, the US government has sought to intervene in the case between a privacy activist and Facebook. Consequently, the court has been adjourned for two weeks to give it - and other parties - time to file a motion in this regard. more
Renesys reports that Internet services in Egypt have been restored. According to the report, Egyptian Internet providers returned to the Internet at 09:29:31 UTC (11:29am Cairo time). "Websites such as the Egyptian Stock Exchange, Commercial International Bank of Egypt, MCDR, and the US Embassy in Cairo, are once again reachable. All major Egyptian ISPs appear to have readvertised routes to their domestic customer networks in the global routing table."
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FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has taken all rulemakings off agenda a day after the Republican Party lawmakers' request. more
Google and Facebook, two companies that generally stay on the other side of the Net Neutrality debate, have told reporters they will be participating in the July 12th net neutrality protest. more
If it's not an era of intense faith in the multilateral system, somewhere among the Trump Administration's anonymous adults in the room there is a believer, and the Internet might be the better for it. Evidence for the existence of this fifth columnist lies in the US National Cyber Strategy, launched last month under the commander-in-chief's unprepossessing signature, which looks to provide security for America's connected economy. more
On New Year's Eve 2008 I felt compelled to respond to the stories being written about the Death of VoIP which lead to my recent blog post: VoIP is NOT Dead!. Since then, I've enjoyed many of the conversations that have continued to take place in the comment sections of a number of blogs, including this one. My belief is the future is unwritten and if the conditions are right people will return to the space. But we need to embrace innovation and change and encourage people to be disruptive. What follows is a continuation of the conversation. more
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