As we arrive at the end of the long health care reform battle with something less than nirvana, media activists have been waiting with bated breath for the release of the long-awaited National Broadband Plan from the Federal Communications Commission.
Well over a year in the making, the plan sets a course for the future of the online communications system — a system that materially affects every American’s ability to access information and express themselves.
The Center for Digital Democracy, joined by a coalition of public health, child advocacy, and media justice groups, today filed an amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) brief in a case concerning teen privacy online. In Fraley v. Facebook, the social networking company was sued for violating the privacy of users of all ages, and the company settled with class-action attorneys before going to litigation. Facebook’s proposed settlement, which was eventually approved by the U.S. District Court, does not protect teen users from appearing in sponsored advertisements on Facebook, even though seven states forbid this kind of appropriation without parental consent Continue reading Coalition Demands Privacy Protections For Teens on Facebook→
Anybody who warns of an unavoidable capacity crisis on wireline or wireless networks is lying in order to sell you something. That may be a blunt assessment to some, but it’s the only conclusion you can draw as we see time and time again that claims about a looming network apocalypse (remember the Exaflood?) violently overestimate future traffic loads and underestimate the ingenuity of modern network engineers. Fear sells. Drink orange juice or you’ll die of cancer. Get more insurance or you’re a bad family man. Vote for me or lose your job and see your grandma deported. Pay $2.50 per gigabyte or face Internet brown outs. Be afraid.
Doubling Digital Opportunities: Enhancing the Inclusion of Women & Girls in the Information Society frames the challenges and opportunities we face in achieving gender equality in an era of rapid technological change. It closely examines critical gender issues with respect to new information and communication technologies (ICTs) and broadband. Most important, it shows ways in which we can further advance the sustainable development agenda by promoting the use of new technologies in support of gender equality and women’s empowerment. From Broadband Commission Working Group on Broadband and Gender, ITU/UN.
A study by the Pew Internet Center documents the enormous number of US adults who gain much or all of their Internet access via smart phones. This suggests that trends towards the imposition of data caps will hit the smart-phone dependent population especially hard. Continue reading Pew Cell/Phone Internet Survey Documents Impact of Data Caps→
This report is a comprehensive compilation of data on how the Latino community is using mobile phones.
The compilation of the data indicates three major tendencies: Latinos are less likely to adopt broadband at home than other ethnic groups, are three times more likely than the general population to rely on mobile phones as their only means of Internet access, and are footing larger mobile phone bills than any other demographic group.
The Coalition for Local Internet Choice (CLIC) and the Benton Foundation teamed up to write this legal and business strategy guide for local municipal governments teaming up with private companies to provide high speed Internet alternatives.
