The media is full of predictions that radio-controlled drones would be one of the most popular gifts this holiday season. Congress got ready too by giving the Federal Aviation Administration a September 30 deadline to develop and implement a plan, “for the safe integration of civil unmanned aircraft systems into the national airspace system.” Until recently, the FAA had few rules designed just for toy model airplanes, and the Federal Communications Commission also lacks regulations for the radio-controlled vehichles. The FAA also realized it really has no way to register all drones, as they already have not been able to deal with the more than 2,000 requests for registrations. Of course, the FAA missed its Congressional deadline, but it just issued a “clarification” on UAS registration and recomendations from a 27-member task force filled with representatives of companies making and selling radio-controlled drones, and the aviation industry. The panel recommended that all drones get registered by owners logging into a website asking for limited information, without a filing fee. The registrant would get an ID number to put on their aircraft. Non-registrants would pay fines, under the proposal, and there would be a sliding charge of up to $25,000 for intentional violators (like recent attempts to smuggle contraband into prisons by drone). The Electronic Privacy Information Center says the proposal does not go far enough, as they want to require drone operators to register contact information and any surveillance capabilities that the drone may have. The group also proposes that the drones should also broadcast their registration numbers.

A long time ago, now more than a decade, the Prometheus Radio Project, a pirate radio-turned-lobbyist and advocacy group promoting public access to the airwaves, challenged the Federal Communication Commission’s media ownership rules, especially about television station Joint Sales Agreements. The case has been shuffled from one jurisdiction to another over the years, but on Dec. 3 oral arguments were scheduled in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Now Prometheus attorney Andrew Schwartzman tells Radio World that the Third Circuit, actually, will hear the case. After all the years of trading places in court, Prometheus wants the FCC to comply with the Third Circuit Court of Appeals’ order to justify or modify the government's method of increasing minority ownership, or propose new measures to do so. Instead, the FCC has deferred a decision on the minority issues.

Albawaba.com reports that Israel has shut down three radio stations this month in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron. Israeli military forces stormed the Dream Radio station studios Nov. 28, destroying equipment and damaging offices. Israeli forces told station officials that Dream Radio would be off the air for six months due to “incitement against Israel.” Al-Khalil Radio (Hebron Radio) and the Manbar al-Hurriyya (Freedom Tribune) station were also closed on grounds of incitement. The Jerusalem Post also reports that Israel's airwave war is also online, as the Foreign Ministry is creating software that can find the words “knife” and “Jew” on social media. It may be able to find other words too.

The BBC reports about a new method of delivering data that's being successfully tested, using the visible spectrum rather than invisible radio waves. So-called "li-fi" can deliver internet access 100 times faster than current wi-fi, with up to 1 Gbps. A standard LED bulb, an internet connection, and a photo detector are used by the Estonian start-up company Velmenni. The company's laboratory tests have proven theoretical speeds of 224Gbps. The company's chief executive Deepak Solanki predicts consumers will be using li-fi "within three to four years." Professor Harald Haas from Edinburgh University first demonstrated the technology at a TED conference in 2011, showing how it does not interfere with other radio signals, and uses a part of the radio spectrum, the visible waves, that's 10,000 times larger then where radio waves currently travel. Sunlight is li-fi's kryptonite, and it does not travel through walls, so this is an end-of-the-line technology for large office buildings.

If you made a telephone call to a prisoner and don't remember exactly what you said, it turns out you may be in luck. Leaked phone records obtained by The Intercept show Securus Technologies has been recording metadata and many actual calls by prisoners. The Intercept, staffed by several reporters involved in the Edward Snowden leak reporting, set up a "SecureDrop" for whistleblowers to leak documents. "An anonymous hacker who believes that Securus is violating the constitutional rights of inmates," according to The Intercept, released the documents that include over 70 million records of phone calls placed by prisoners to at least 37 states from December 2011 through the spring of 2014. At least 14,000 of the recorded conversations were between inmates and attorneys. There's, "a strong indication that at least some of the recordings are likely confidential and privileged legal communications — calls that never should have been recorded in the first place. The recording of legally protected attorney-client communications — and the storage of those recordings — potentially offends constitutional protections, including the right to effective assistance of counsel and of access to the courts." Jordan Smith, Micah Lee write at The Intercept. “This may be the most massive breach of the attorney-client privilege in modern U.S. history, and that’s certainly something to be concerned about,” said David Fathi, director of the ACLU’s National Prison Project. See the full story in The Intercept.

Five months ago on the floor of Congress John McCain said the U.S. government was paying for fake displays of patriotism at National Football League games. Now McCain and fellow Republican Arizona Senator Jeff Flake have released a “Tackling Paid Patriotism” investigation that shows the Department of Defense spent $53 million on marketing and advertising contracts with the rich owners of major sports teams between 2012 and 2015. More than $10 million was paid to teams in the owners of National Football League, Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association, National Hockey League, and Major League Soccer. And 59 percent of that $10 million went to pro-military propaganda: game sponsorship, military appreciation nights, welcome-home promotions for soldiers, on-field color guard performances, enlistment and reenlistment ceremonies, performances of the national anthem, full-field flag details, ceremonial first pitches and other acts that any viewer would have thought were the idea and paid for by the teams. Turns out, no, those moments of patriotism you've been watching on TV, are just theater.

The New York Times reports that Judge Richard J. Leon of United States District Court for the District of Columbia on Nov. 9 partly blocked the National Security Agency’s collection of Americans’ domestic phone records, weeks before the agency was scheduled to shut it down and replace it. Leon said the program was most likely unconstitutional in a 43-page ruling. “With the government’s authority to operate the bulk telephony metadata program quickly coming to an end, this case is perhaps the last chapter in the judiciary’s evaluation of this particular program’s compatibility with the Constitution,” Leon wrote. “It will not, however, be the last chapter in the ongoing struggle to balance privacy rights and national security interests under our Constitution in an age of evolving technological wizardry.” Judge Leon stopped the N.S.A. from collecting phone records for a lawyer in California and his law firm, a customer of Verizon. The Justice Department previously said that blocking just one person’s records might require shutting down the entire program. Reuters reported that on the same day the N.S.A. sent a memo to Congress saying it had begun testing a replacement system.

Utah Republican Congressman Jason Chaffetz last week introduced legislation limiting the use of cell-site simulators, known as “Stingrays.” His H.R. 3871, "The Stingray Privacy Act," is co-sponsored by John Conyers (D-MI), and Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT), and would limit the use of cell site simulators by federal agencies as well as state and local law enforcement, according to Chaffetz. The American Civil Liberties Union recently reported that at least 13 federal agencies have Stingrays now, including the Internal Revenue Service. “The abuse of Stingrays and other cell site simulators by individuals, including law enforcement, could enable gross violations of privacy,” said Chaffetz. "The fact that law enforcement agencies, and non-law enforcement agencies such as the IRS, have invested in these devices raises serious questions about who is using this technology and why. These questions demonstrate the need for strict guidelines that carry the weight of the law."

Comcast announced it is expanding its internet data caps to Tuscaloosa, Alabama; Little Rock, Arkansas; Houma, LaPlace and Shreveport, Louisiana; Chattanooga, Gray, Greenville, Johnson City and Rarity Bay, Tennessee; and Galax, Virginia. This year Comcast now has more Internet than TV customers, and is interested in maximizing profits. Comcast is limiting data and rolling out a $35 "unlimited" option to most of the areas that have data caps. "Comcast continues to exert its dominance in the uncompetitive market for high-speed Internet access, increasing the bottom line for its incredibly profitable broadband business," Matt Wood, the policy director for Free Press, said in an emailed statement. He added that the caps "stifle innovation and choice in online video and cloud-based services."

Matthew Lasar reports in Radio Survivor that British broadcast regulator Ofcom has closed 400 pirate radio stations lately, mostly in two London boroughs, and says it could save British taxpayers “up to” £1 million by cracking down on that city’s remaining pirates. How? “Pirate stations typically use high-rise buildings for their broadcasts, with illegal transmitters installed on rooftops or hidden in lift shafts,” Ofcom says. This is sort-of correct: pirates, like other FM broadcasters, put their antennae high up for a broader reach. “This damages residential properties owned by local authorities, disrupting residents’ lives and putting people at risk from falling equipment,” the agency claims. Actually, hanging a pirate radio antenna on a rooftop would not do any more damage than putting a television antenna there would. Ofcom quotes a group called "Homes for Haringey" saying that pirate operations have delayed key construction projects. One of their board documents blames construction delays on, among other things, "Pirate radio aerials [that] have affected the progress of the completion of external works on some schemes." Ofcom makes no effort to itemize that £1 million savings figure, and it is difficult to imagine how an antenna could delay a construction project. Ofcom also says pirate radio disrupts emergency services without giving any examples. In this latest press offensive, their "Pirate Radio Summit," Ofcom throws everything at the pirate menace except that old myth that regulators constantly sing about pirate radio bringing down airplanes.

Reuters reports that the Federal Communications Commission and the Justice Department are both looking into a California company broadcasting in more than a dozen major American cities, backed by a subsidiary of the Chinese government. Reuters uncovered what it is calling it a, "covert radio network," broadcasting in Washington, Philadelphia, Boston, Houston, San Francisco, and other cities. “Based on reports, the FCC will initiate an inquiry into the facts surrounding the foreign ownership issues raised in the stories, including whether the Commission’s statutory foreign ownership rules have been violated,” FCC spokesman Neil Grace said. G&E Studio is owned by James Su, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Shanghai. G&E Studio is 60 percent owned by a subsidiary of Chinese state-run radio broadcaster China Radio International. The FCC does not allow foreign governments or their representatives to hold radio licenses in America. Foreign individuals, governments, and corporations can only hold up to a 20 percent interest in a station and up to 25 percent in a U.S. parent corporation of a radio or television station. Content on G&E stations, Reuters reports, is produced at G&E's West Covina, California studios or by China Radio International in Beijing. "The news programming on these CRI-backed stations sticks closely to the Chinese government line on a host of issues, including the current military standoff in the South China Sea between China and the United States," Reuters claims. James Su’s spokeswoman declined to comment on Nov. 2, but on Sept. 16 told Reuters his radio network abides by U.S. law because he leases all the air time from stations, rather than owning them outright. Read the full story from Reuters.

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Justin Peters in Slate magazine reports that the Federal Aviation Administration has names the 26-member panel that will decide the rules of registering radio-controlled drones in the United States. And not one of the folks on the panel is a proponent of civil liberties, or privacy advocates. Sure, there are representatives from the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, the Aerospace Industries Association, dronemakers DJI and Parrot, online retailers Google and Amazon, and big-box retailers Best Buy and Walmart. “I think it’s not obvious to the FAA that civil liberties groups should be involved, because the FAA largely understands itself as having to balance a safety mandate against restricting innovation,” Ohio State University law professor Margot Kaminski said. “The makeup of this list reflects that framing."

[caption width="400" align="aligncenter"] Flight path of surveillance planes in Baltimore from ACLU.[/caption]
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Nathan Freed Wessler, a staff attorney, in the American Civil Liberties Union's Speech, Privacy & Technology Project on Oct. 30 released FBI and FAA documents with new details about the surveillance flights that flew over protests in Baltimore following the police killing of Freddie Gray. Documents obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, reveal the FBI used infrared and night-vision cameras, and it is holding on to surveillance video it recorded from the sky. According to its flight logs, the ACLU reports, the FBI flew 10 surveillance flights over Baltimore between April 29 and May 3, with a Baltimore Police Department official also on half the flights. FAA documents show the Cessna propeller plane registered to the FBI front company, NG Research, had surveillance camera equipment on board including an infrared camera mount and a FLIR Talon multi-sensor camera system on the exterior of the plane. That FLIR system includes a “thermal imager,” an optical camera, and a “laser illuminator” for recording at night. Wessler, from the ACLU, writes, "In its Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide, the FBI takes the position that no Fourth Amendment protections apply to 'aerial surveillance conducted from navigable airspace.' While that is an accurate statement of Supreme Court precedent when it comes to visual observation and use of normal cameras from a plane, it fails to grapple with the effect of advances in surveillance technology. Use of infrared and night-vision camera technology changes the equation by raising the potential for invasions of privacy.... If the infrared camera is capable of observing information about the inside of private homes and offices, for example, the Supreme Court has already explained that the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement applies."

After talking about "saving" AM radio for the past two years, the Federal Communications Commission released its "AM Radio Revitalization Report and Order" Oct. 23. The plan to save AM radio is finally here, and the answer is largely to move AM stations onto the FM band. Chairman Tom Wheeler, a Democrat, said the order will, “ease regulatory burdens on AM broadcasters and address practical problems and interference-related issues that have long plagued AM stations.” Commissioner Ajit Pai, the Republican leading the charge to bring back old time AM radio, released a statement with Commissioner Mignon Clyburn that said the order, “acknowledges the realities of the upcoming incentive auction and the need for immediate relief for AM stations.” That means he's happy commercial AM broadcasters are going to have their way on the FM frequencies through translater auctions. Now the commission will next year allow AM licensees to acquire an FM translator, even relocating one from up to 250 miles away if necessary. The next year, the FCC will hold more translator auction windows for AM broadcasters. Many other more minor actions were taken to save AM radio, but the biggest is this translator giveaway, which may preclude or pre-empt low-power FM stations and room for more non-commercial voices.

The Senate voted 74 to 21 Oct. 27 in favor of the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act. The bill was called by some senators necessary for national defense, while others said was another needless way for the government to surveil its citizens.

Senate has year of giant hacks fresh in its mind. Privacy crowd has 2 years of Snowden revelations fresh in theirs. https://t.co/iKmGHcCAJ0

— Kash of Alderaan (@kashhill) October 27, 2015

The Senate passed a version of CISA close to legislation passed in the House earlier this year, but the details will have to be worked out in committee. “The incentive and the framework it creates is for companies to quickly and massively collect user information and ship it to the government,” said Mark Jaycox, a legislative analyst for the civil liberties group the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Wired reported that Apple, Reddit, Twitter, the Business Software Alliance, the Computer and Communications Industry Association, and other tech firms oppose the bill. "Even the Department of Homeland Security itself has warned in a July letter that the bill could flood the agency with information of 'dubious value' at the same time as it 'sweep[s] away privacy protections,'" Wired reported.

Wireless industry (CTIA) statement calls CISA a "constructive framework for bi-directional information sharing."

— Karl Bode (@KarlBode) October 27, 2015

People have a right to make a telephone call without that information being collected by the government.

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) October 27, 2015

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The Guardian newspaper is reporting that the Internal Revenue Service in the United States bought several Stingray devices between 2009 and 2012. Stingrays are IMSI-catchers, or “cell-site simulators,” small devices that pretend to be cellphone towers in order to catch all local metadata and some content from phones which connect to them. "Despite their extensive capabilities, they require only a low-level court order called a PEN register, also known as a “trap and trace,” to grant permission for their use," The Guardian story says. The Harris Corporation, which makes the Stingrays, are ultra-secretive about the devices. An April Guardian report revealed non-disclosure agreements that local police and prosecutors were forced to sign with the FBI before using Stingrays. The documents demanded local authorities withdraw or even drop cases rather than reveal their use as the source of information. In September, The Guardian reported that this withholding of “discovery” evidence by Baltimore police could lead to 2,000 cases being overturned. The American Civil Liberties Union and various news outlets have now shown that at least 13 federal agencies have Stingrays now. Nate Wessler, an ACLU attorney told the Guardian: “The info showing that they are using Stingrays is generally consistent with the kinds of investigative tactics that they are engaging in, and it shows the wide proliferation of this very invasive surveillance technology.”

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Boing Boing reports that Wikimedia's case against the NSA was dismissed by U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III, saying they couldn't prove the National Security Agency was intercepting data between Wikipedia and its users. Wikimedia never got to challenge the legality of United States government surveillance, and instead fought over standing in the case. Judge Ellis wrote that, "plaintiffs insist that Wikipedia's over one trillion annual Internet communications is significant in volume... but size is always relative. For example, one trillion dollars are of enormous value, whereas one trillion grains of sand are but a small patch of beach." Ellis reasoned that the only people who could challenge NSA surveillance would be those told by the government they were being spied upon. Just because media reports that the government is culling through millions of metadata points, doesn't prove that some of that metadata was Wikimedia's. The American Civil Liberties Union represents Wikimedia in the case, and said, "There’s no question that the NSA is capturing and searching through their communications. That’s something the court — and everyone else — should find extremely disconcerting."

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James Reed in the Boston Globe reports that efforts have revived to make “Roadrunner,” by the Modern Lovers, the official rock song of Massachusetts. In January, a similar bill could not get a floor vote, but last week there was a public hearing about the new bill. “The song really is a love letter to Massachusetts, about driving around the state late at night with the radio on. It’s just perfect," said State Senator Robert Hedlund. Last time, representatives Josh Cutler and James Cantwell countered with a bill that would have made Aerosmith’s “Dream On” the state rock song. So far this time, there is no announced opposition. Comedian John Hodgman submitted his opinion to the hearing: "The songs says, 'I'm in love with Massachusetts.' What more testimony need be heard?" Read the full story in the Boston Globe.

There are 15 percent more radio and television stations in the United States then ten years ago, Radio World reports. There are now 31,013 licensed broadcast stations in the country as of Sept. 30, 2015. The biggest jumps in number of stations came from low-power FM (up 128 percent) and FM educational stations (up 56 percent). Low-power FM was legalized just before 2005, and expanded in the past decade, and the FCC had a rare FM educational application window in 2008, which explain the large increases. The economics of running a television station explain the 39 percent drop in VHF commercial television stations. Their bandwidth has become more valuable for commercial wireless applications then for mass broadcasting, which can be done cheaper now at other frequencies. Also fewer in numbers: Class A VHF TV stations (down 82 percent); VHF translators (down 53 percent); and VHF low-power TV stations (down 27 percent).

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The Washington Post reports many major tech companies the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA), a so-called cybersecurity bill expected to see a vote in the U.S. Senate next week. Yelp, reddit, Twitter, Apple, Dropbox, and the Wikimedia Foundation, all have come out against the bill. "The trust of our customers means everything to us and we don't believe security should come at the expense of their privacy," Apple's statement on the issue said. Google, Facebook, and Yahoo are lobbying through the Computer and Communications Industry Association against the bill too. Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Oct. 20 that the bill allows companies to share information on “cyber threats” with the government — but not personal data. "Things like Social Security numbers, addresses, passwords and credit information would be unrelated to a cyber threat and would, except in very exceptional circumstances, be removed," Feinstein said. Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden is against the bill, and said, "If you share more information without strong privacy protections, millions of Americans will say, 'That is not a cybersecurity bill. It is a surveillance bill.'" The bill is expected to pass the Senate next week, and has support from President Obama.