Facial recognition has many uses, but the technology is predominantly used in the U.S. to identify characteristics such as age or gender to tailor digital advertising, and federal privacy law should be adapted to reflect new technologies, said a report from the GAO Thursday. Privacy advocacy organizations and government agencies have cited privacy concerns about the commercial use of facial recognition technology, saying if the technology’s use were widespread, companies could identify almost anyone in public and track people’s locations, movements and companions, without an individual’s knowledge or consent, GAO said. How the collected information is used, shared or sold is also a concern, it said. Some stakeholders argue individuals shouldn't expect complete anonymity in public, and privacy losses are offset by benefits the technology offers consumers and businesses, GAO said. No law fully addresses the privacy concerns raised by facial recognition technology, it said. Some laws, like the FTC Act, may apply in certain contexts, but “gaps exist in the consumer privacy framework,” GAO said. Congress should consider strengthening the consumer privacy framework to reflect changes in technology and the marketplace and current privacy framework in commercial settings warrants reconsideration, GAO said. In response to the GAO’s report , Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., who requested the GAO report last year, said in a news release Thursday more action is needed to protect the privacy of American consumers. “Facial recognition tracks you in the real world -- from cameras stationed on street corners and in shopping centers, and through photographs taken by friends and strangers alike,” Franken said. The GAO report “raises serious concerns about how companies are collecting, using, and storing our most sensitive personal information,” he said. “I believe that all Americans have a fundamental right to privacy, which is why it’s important that, at the very least, the tech industry adopts strong, industry-wide standards for facial recognition technology,” Franken said. “But what we really need are federal standards that address facial recognition privacy by enhancing our consumer privacy framework.”

Many FCC proposals to relax rules for unlicensed uses in the TV band “lack sound engineering support,” NAB told an aide to Commissioner Ajit Pai Wednesday, according to an ex parte filing posted online in docket 12-268 Friday. Proposals to allow fixed devices to use channels adjacent to TV channels don't account for the different interference characteristics of portable and fixed devices, NAB said. The FCC's proposal on a search for additional spectrum in which to place wireless microphones doesn't address “the urgent need for some reserved spectrum for licensed wireless microphones in all markets,” NAB said.

New York City opposes repacking broadcasters into the duplex gap, said a letter to the FCC from Maya Wiley, counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio, posted online Friday. “I am deeply concerned about the potential impact on New York City, one of the media markets the Auction Task Force has indicated would most likely see a broadcaster placed in the duplex gap post auction,” Wiley said. The duplex gap should be preserved for unlicensed use and for wireless microphones to protect news teams' ability to cover breaking news in the city and the city's ability to host major sporting events like the Super Bowl, Wiley said. An impaired duplex gap could also discourage auction participation, Wiley said. “Having a common channel available for unlicensed users in every market nationwide -- especially in the country's largest market: New York City -- is essential to encourage private investment in the integrated Wi-Fi chips that will bring greatest value to smartphone users in urban areas,” the letter said. The FCC should follow the wishes of the “broad stakeholder consensus” and not repack TV stations into the gap, Wiley said.

FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly is right to press for process reform, which would make the FCC more transparent, said Boston College law professor Daniel Lyons in an American Enterprise Institute blog post Thursday. Lyons gave once of the talks following O’Rielly's remarks on process reform at a Free State Foundation lunch Tuesday (see 1507280052). “Most law today occurs not in the legislature, but in agencies like the FCC pursuant to power delegated by Congress,” Lyons wrote. “FCC process reform is needed in order to facilitate public insight and transparency, and to improve the overall quality of its final product. Process reform should promote a better, more robust dialogue among the commissioners, and between the commissioners and the public. The commission ignores such reforms at its peril, as it jeopardizes the legitimacy of the agency’s final product.”

Whether expanding Medicare coverage to include telemedicine services would increase or decrease federal spending depends on the payment rates that would be established for those services and whether those services would substitute other Medicare-covered services or be used in addition to currently covered services, wrote Congressional Budget Office's Health, Retirement and CBO's Long-Term Analysis Division Deputy Assistant Director Philip Ellis analysts Lori Housman and Zoe Williams in a blog post Wednesday. “CBO analyzes proposals to expand Medicare coverage of telemedicine on a case-by-case basis,” and would like to see more evidence from new and well-designed academic studies on how telemedicine coverage affects spending, the post said. Proposals to expand coverage for telemedicine or telehealth services in Medicare would need to define several factors, including: covered services and methods of delivery, types of providers and sites of care that would be paid to offer those services, and the types of patients who would be eligible for those services, the post said. Medicare’s total payments for telemedicine services are higher for equivalent services delivered conventionally because Medicare has to pay the doctor plus a facility fee, it said. “Although offering telemedicine to rural enrollees could improve the quality of care that such enrollees receive and could be more convenient for them, doing so might not reduce Medicare spending on their care,” the post said. But “providing telemedicine might well increase spending on services Medicare covers instead of substituting for services that would have been covered without telemedicine,” it said.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) draft on Internal Report 8062 negatively affects the private sector, 12 Internet and telecom groups wrote in a joint comment to NIST Thursday. “We appreciate NIST’s recognition of the importance of privacy engineering and the use of technological approaches to minimize privacy risks and to implement a ‘privacy by design’ approach,” wrote the groups, which included CTIA, The Internet Association and USTelecom. But four issues with the draft caught the attention of the groups. “As written, the draft NISTIR extends beyond its intended scope of being limited to federal information systems and its potential applicability to the private sector is concerning,” the groups said. “The catalog of privacy problems set forth in the draft NISTIR includes subjective ‘problems’ that result in premature policy-making on privacy"; “the risk management methodology cannot produce repeatable and measurable results because it relies on subjective determinations"; and “the draft NISTIR omits an integral component of privacy risk assessments, namely a discussion of the benefits of taking a certain data action,” they said.

FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn promised she will continue efforts to ensure the USF Lifeline program is expanded to cover broadband. Clyburn spoke Thursday to the National Urban League annual convention and the FCC posted her remarks. Many “people of color” say they're making more money online “than they ever did when they were pounding the pavement and knocking on doors,” Clyburn said. But many can't afford to be connected, she said. “Too many of our schools and libraries have inadequate broadband speeds. Too many children lack broadband at home to complete homework.” The conventional wisdom is that cost alone isn't the biggest factor keeping people from subscribing to broadband, Clyburn said. “But as community leaders, you know firsthand that when you ask that proud senior on a fixed income whether she wants to sign up for broadband, her dignity will never allow her to admit that she cannot afford it,” she said. “She will tell you that she does not need it, but we know that is just not true.” The Pew Research Center recently said African-Americans have adopted broadband faster than any other group the past 15 years, she said. But Pew “also reported that of the majority of those without broadband have household incomes lower than $30,000 a year,” she said. “We are committed to ensuring that cost is no longer a barrier to broadband adoption, but this will only happen through partnerships with industry, the government, and you.” Clyburn cited the FCC approval of AT&T’s buy of DirecTV (see 1507280043). Less well known, Clyburn said, is that her office worked with AT&T to design a program that will offer individuals and families eligible for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program the ability to buy 10 Mbps of broadband for $10 a month. “At that speed, you could download instructional videos, get wellness care through telemedicine, and start and maintain an online business,” she said.

The FCC added a draft broadband deployment notice of inquiry to its Aug. 6 meeting agenda, though it's possible the commission could vote on the item before the meeting, agency officials told us. Under Section 706 of the 1996 Telecom Act, the FCC is required to conduct an inquiry, which must begin by Aug. 7, to look at whether broadband is being deployed to all Americans "in a reasonable and timely fashion," and to take remedial steps to remove barriers if necessary. The FCC will consider whether to include mobile broadband and satellite broadband in its assessment, FCC officials said July 23 (see 1507230054). Also on the Aug. 6 agenda are items on the IP tech transition, broadcast incentive auction, carrier spectrum holdings and wireless mics.

The FCC's net neutrality order should be vacated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, said a brief filed Thursday by the American Cable Association, AT&T, CenturyLink, CTIA, Daniel Berninger, NCTA, USTelecom and the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association. The petitioners said the FCC's reclassification of broadband Internet access as a Title II service under the Communications Act contravened that law and was arbitrary and capricious. They said the FCC's reclassification of mobile broadband Internet access as a common carrier service was "doubly unlawful." The FCC order also was unlawfully vague and the agency violated administrative procedures, they said. Petitioners Alamo Broadband and Daniel Berninger submitted a separate brief arguing the FCC order violated the First Amendment and was unsustainable under Section 706 of the Telecom Act. They also said the FCC's rule prohibiting broadband access providers from engaging in "paid prioritization" was not allowed under Section 201(b) and not authorized under Section 303(b) of the Communications Act. Full Service Network also was to file a brief, but its text wasn't available at our deadline. FSN argues the FCC went too far in providing broadband providers regulatory forbearance relief.

The FCC's AT&T/DirecTV conditions weren't onerous and signal that Charter's planned takeover of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks won't be blocked just because of the combo's size, said Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. analysts Wednesday in a note to investors on the agency's 241-page order (see 1507280043). "The Order imposes very few conditions on AT&T and none that we view as financially material," said Paul de Sa, a former FCC official, and other Bernstein analysts. "We expect the deal as approved to be at most slightly negative for other players in the sector (cable, regional fixed telco, content, Verizon)." They also called the order consistent with their view of the Obama administration's approach to transactions. "The Order disproves the theory that Charter/TWC/Bright House, or other cable/cable deals, will be challenged because regulators are against any merger that increases the size of integrated broadband/payTV providers," they said.