CAMBRIDGE, U.K. -- Traditional regulation “will struggle to cope” with the privacy issues raised by mobile phone applications, a Vodafone official said Tuesday at a Privacy Laws & Business conference. Applications are the consequences of an ecosystem that includes dependent and independent players, and whose barriers to entry are incredibly low, said Stephen Deadman, group privacy officer and head of legal for Vodafone Group UK. Many application developers and platforms are based far away from Europe, so any data protection solution requires an understanding of the structures and dynamics of the system, he said. He urged collaboration among storefronts, platforms, designers, and carriers.
Dugie Standeford
Dugie Standeford, European Correspondent, Communications Daily and Privacy Daily, is a former lawyer. She joined Warren Communications News in 2000 to report on internet policy and regulation. In 2003 she moved to the U.K. and since then has covered European telecommunications issues. She previously covered the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration and intellectual property law matters. She has a degree in psychology from Duke University and a law degree from the University of Tulsa College of Law.
The U.K. Office of Communications unveiled a proposal for tackling online copyright breaches, but said Tuesday any move toward forcing ISPs to throttle or cut off suspected infringers will have to wait. The code, on which Ofcom wants feedback, essentially tracks a May 2010 version, with some key amendments, the regulator said. A second consultation document seeks input on proposed costs to copyright owners, ISPs and subscribers in breach proceedings. ISPs griped about having to pay any costs, while one civil liberties group called the proposed appeals process a “joke."
The European Parliament should refuse consent to the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, the International Trade Committee (INTA) said Thursday. It voted 19-12 to approve the draft report by David Martin, of the U.K. and Socialists and Democrats, nixing an amendment that would have pushed back the final vote until the European Court of Justice (ECJ) rules on European Commission questions about whether the pact violates fundamental rights. The decision by the lead committee follows its rejection by all of the other committees vetting ACTA. A plenary vote dealing the final death blow is expected July 4. Civil liberties groups were elated.
BRUSSELS -- Europe must immediately start working on a policy for use of the 700 MHz band or risk isolation, said Radio Spectrum Policy Group Chairman Roberto Viola at a Forum Europe spectrum management conference Tuesday. The band was tentatively allocated at WRC-12 for global use for mobile broadband, and the question now is whether Europe can afford to lag behind in the debate, he said. Although the band in Europe is occupied by terrestrial broadcasters, it can’t be ignored, nor can the future of broadcasting, he said.
Two years into its digital agenda program the EU has reached about a third of its goals, but progress remains mixed and regulatory divergences wide, the European Commission said Monday. There’s too much complacency, said Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes. Europeans are hungry for digital technologies, but they're being held back by EU governments and industry, she said. There have been positive developments, such as nearly ubiquitous broadband across Europe, and booming mobile broadband take-up, the EC said. But the results so far spark worries that Europe won’t meet its 2015 goals and will fall behind competitors, Constantijn van Oranje, a member of Kroes’ cabinet, said at a press briefing.
A U.K. government plan to ramp up communications traffic data collection and storage for police and security services sparked concern from ISPs and privacy advocates Thursday. The draft Communications Bill aims to make it easier for law enforcement agencies to access data from new technologies, Home Secretary Theresa May said in a foreword. “Without action there is a serious and growing risk that crime enabled by email and the internet will go undetected and unpunished.” The measure doesn’t require retention of message content, the draft said. Communications services providers are currently required to store some communications data which they have business reasons to generate or process, it said. They don’t have to keep data they don’t need, it said. The police and other public authorities can access specified communications data on a case-by-case basis, and they must first show that the information is necessary to their investigation and proportionate to its objectives, it said. Law enforcement bodies can’t access data that’s not connected to a specific operation, it said. As communications technologies and services change, and more take place online via a wider range of service, including VoIP, online gaming and instant messaging, ISPs and other providers must be required to obtain and store some traffic data they have no reason to collect, it said. The draft calls for “filtering” that data when authorized in response to a lawful data request from a public authority, although it also says that only those parts of the netted data covered by the authorization can be handed over. May said she recognizes “that these proposals raise important issues around personal privacy,” so the bill will undergo pre-legislative scrutiny by a joint parliamentary committee. The Internet Services Providers’ Association “has concerns about the new powers to require network operators to capture and retain third party communications data,” said ISPA Secretary General Nicholas Lansman. Those concerns include scope and proportionality, privacy and data protection implications and technical feasibility, he said. ISPs understand that the technological developments are forcing the government to revisit its communications data capabilities, but its powers must be clear and contain sufficient safeguards, he said. ISPA will try to address its key concerns during the parliamentary review, he said. The measure is almost identical to a 2009 proposal from the Labour Party which was strongly opposed by the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, Privacy International Press Officer Emma Draper told us. The public outcry in April when the story of the plan first broke “has clearly not discouraged the Home Office,” which has “thrown us the bone of restricting access for local authorities and confirmed our worst fears in every other respect,” she said after a briefing with Open Rights Group and Big Brother Watch. One member of Parliament at the briefing said he didn’t think the measure in its current form could even be put before the House of Commons, she said. There’s a distinct possibility that the government has “deliberately designed a completely outrageous draft bill” to allow it to make token concessions later, while keeping every provision it really cares about, Draper said.
IPv6 has been “proven ready for business” after more than 3,000 websites, 60 access providers and five home router vendors moved permanently to it for the Internet Society world launch Wednesday, ISOC Chief Internet Technology Officer Leslie Daigle told a news briefing Thursday. “There are no more excuses” for not running IPv6 alongside IPv4, said Google Internet Evangelist Vint Cerf. Companies that aren’t capable of doing so must “get going,” he said. While it will take time for the technology to spread to all networks, websites and consumer equipment, some players are already looking ahead to its uses in emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), smart grids and cloud computing, they said. There’s a much larger supply of IPv6 addresses, vs. a dwindling supply of IPv4 Internet Protocol addresses.
Wednesday’s Internet Society world IPv6 launch appeared headed for success at our deadline, with several participants saying they had encountered few if any problems in their own or customers’ connectivity, and experienced significant leaps in traffic. Nevertheless, there is still a lot of work to do, they said. Among other things, concerns remain in Europe, which is about to run out of IPv4 addresses and is lagging in IPv6 deployment, several observers said.
Wednesday’s World IPv6 Launch will have about 3,000 participating website operators, six network operators and five home router vendors, said the Internet Society, spearheading the event. That’s a “large representation of IPv6 stakeholders” who will show others how to make transition to the technology happen, said IPv6 Forum President Latif Ladid. “It would have been good to get more ISPs, mobile operators, and customer-premises equipment vendors, but it’s a good start,” he told us. Rollout of a revised U.S. federal IPv6 roadmap has been held up for more edits, we're told, and one European Commission staff member urged public authorities to make the change as soon as possible or risk an untenable situation.
Three European Parliament panels vetting the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement urged the lead committee to refuse consent to the controversial pact, they said Thursday. Opposition from the Civil Liberties (LIBE) and Industry (ITRE) committees was expected, but the Legal Affairs (JURI) Committee’s stance surprised one digital rights activist. But the close votes, and the European Commission’s determination to press on, mean the treaty is likely still in play, European Digital Rights Advocacy Coordinator Joe McNamee said.