A consumer privacy debate continued late into the afternoon Mon. at the FTC’s radio frequency identification (RFID) forum. Most debate centered on the emerging technology’s potential to track goods or even people after the purchase of items fitted with an RFID tag. Sun Microsystems engineer Jim Waldo said RFID tags will remain either hard to read or very expensive, preventing the widespread dissemination needed for any privacy-violating surveillance or information gathering. Claiming “RFID tags are really bad sensors,” Waldo said the technology isn’t geared for real-world data collection, only basic inventorying.
NTT DoCoMo announced plans to market 4 mobile handsets embedded with a chip that stores personal and financial information. These “mobile wallet” applications allow users to store and spend money electronically at participating stores just by holding their phones next to a sensor on a cash register. Users will also be able to store on their phones electronic security passes for everything from trains to buildings.
A federal appeals court rebuked the DirecTV Group for a “tortured reading” of federal wiretap law, in upholding a lower court ruling that a Fla. man couldn’t be sued for possession of devices designed to pirate programming. The 11th Circuit U.S. Appeals Court ruled that because a section of the federal wiretap law of 1986 doesn’t “create a private right of action” against someone who “possesses” a piracy device, “we cannot create one.” Courts, the appeals panel said, “may not create” a private right of action “because that is a determination Congress alone can make.”
Mass. and other states are poised to pass legislation to protect the privacy of consumers involved with radio frequency identification (RFID), State Sen. Jarrett Barrios (D-Cambridge) warned an Information Technology Assn. of America (ITAA) conference Tues. Barrios, chmn. of the Senate Public Safety Committee, advised attendees that unless industry develops rules on its own the govt. will step in.
BOSTON -- The ITU’s Task Group 1/8 meetings will ultimately lead to a worldwide agreement on ultra-wideband, though the glide path may not always be smooth, NTIA acting Dir. Michael Gallagher said last week at the meeting, which is continuing here through the end of this week.
BOSTON -- Office of Engineering & Technology Chief Edmond Thomas said the pending 2nd report and order on ultrawideband, to be ready in the next few months, probably won’t break new ground beyond the first report, which UWB promoters say has helped spur rollout of the new technology. Thomas said the one issue of substance the order “may” take on is changing the rules for frequency hopping (FH), which has been one of the most contentious technical issues on UWB. Thomas was here late Wed. to make brief remarks ITU’s Task Group 1/8, which is struggling to develop an international position on UWB (CD June 10 p5).
The Foundation for Taxpayer & Consumer Rights filed a lawsuit in L.A. Superior Court charging wireless phones sold by T-Mobile, AT&T and Cingular contain software that prevents porting to other carriers. The suit charges this is a violation of Cal. consumer protection law.
A spokesman for presidential candidate Sen. Kerry (D- Mass.) said Kerry spoke in broad philosophical terms when he told a C-SPAN interviewer that he didn’t support applying broadcast TV regulations to cable (CD June 7 p12). In March, Kerry voted in favor of an amendment that would have applied such regulations to cable until the FCC conducted a study that showed 85% of households with children had the V-chip. Kerry wasn’t present at the vote and had given his proxy vote to Senate Commerce Committee ranking Democrat Hollings (S.C.).
The FCC is strongly considering delaying an order on ITFS spectrum rules due at the Commission next week, according to officials at the Wireless Communications Assn. conference in Washington Wed. The FCC has faced a firestorm of protests the past week, since word broke an order was steaming forward that would take 18 MHz of spectrum away from ITFS as part of a rule on the MMDS/ITFS spectrum allocation. The Commission must decide today (Thurs.) whether the order will be on the sunshine agenda for the June 10 Commission meeting.
Seeking a cheaper, more efficient way to offer high- speed data links and home networking services to subscribers, major cable operators are exploring the use of broadband over power line technology. Sources said several major MSOs are quietly conducting trials of the power industry’s HomePlug technology to zip signals among cable modems, computers and other devices throughout the house using electrical outlets.