Rep. Ted Poe said Tuesday that he plans to re-introduce a bill that would set limits on domestic surveillance by unmanned aerial vehicles or drones, setting up another battle over privacy protections for the 113th Congress. The Texas Republican said his legislation, which gained 26 co-sponsors in the 112th Congress but never came to the floor for a vote, would set limits on how law enforcement can use drones to monitor citizens, and when a warrant would be required. Poe is hardly alone in his concern over the privacy implications of drones, which are increasingly deployed by both the government and private sector. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have called for greater regulation of how drones can be used, and whether their relatively low cost and ease of deployment could herald an unprecedented expansion of digital surveillance.
The bill would attempt to define both "drone" and "surveillance," while also establishing what a "reasonable expectation of privacy" for individuals concerned about their actions being tracked. The most recent Federal Aviation Administration authorization bill directed the FAA to issue rules that would allow for the integration of drones into domestic airspace, though it remains illegal to operate a drone without an FAA license. However, House leadership has not yet warmed to the idea of regulating drones, and the makers of such devices are likely to keep pushing for the FAA to reduce barriers preventing their use. The FAA's guidelines will be closely scrutinized, but count on the drone issue popping up repeatedly in 2013, as Americans prepare for their widespread domestic deployment in the coming years.
New CQ HotDoc: CRS Report on the FCC's Broadcast Media Ownership Rules Public Knowledge Accuses AT&T Of Net Neutrality Violation: The public interest group Public Knowledge accused AT&T of a possible net neutrality violation on Tuesday, arguing the telecom giant was using its data cap in an anticompetitive manner. PK claims that AT&T has exempted microcell towers, which use a home broadband connection to boost wireless signals, from the data caps it imposes on AT&T DSL or U-Verse customers. Public Knowledge raised similar concerns last year when Comcast exempted its online video service from its data caps; the group is still waiting on the FCC to resolve the complaint. Quotable: " The message to AT&T DSL and U-verse consumers is clear: if your cell signal is weak and you are worried about your data cap, better get a phone from AT&T wireless. Simply put, this is an abuse of data caps." — Michael Weinberg, Public Knowledge Facebook Unveils New Search Tool: Facebook unveiled a new tool called graph search on Tuesday, which the company billed as a new way to get specific information and recommendations based on the site's trove of user data. Users would search for an item or business, and be able to view similar products purchased or businesses frequented by their Facebook friends. The announcement also furthers the growing rivalry between Facebook and Google, as the former is now taking on the search giant on its home turf. Social search is considered the next frontier for most Web companies, and a successful launch by Facebook could have major implications for the company's bottom line. The feature will be rolled out slowly, with only a few thousand users given initial access to graph search. Lofgren Unveils Aaron's Law: Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., returned to Reddit on Tuesday to post a copy (PDF) of a new bill she plans to introduce that would limit the way the government could prosecute some computer crimes. Lofgren dubbed the bill Aaron's Law after Reddit co-founder Aaron Swartz, who committed suicide last week while faced with charges he illegally downloaded millions of academic journals from M.I.T.'s network. Lofgren's bill would amend portions of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act to exclude terms of service violations. She and other lawmakers have criticized the government's prosecution of Swartz as overzealous this week, with House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., promising to probe the Justice Department's case against Swartz.