| | | | |  | | By Brendan Bordelon | | | With help from Leah Nylen and Sam Sabin Programming announcement: Starting April 1, 2022, Morning Tech will be exclusively available to POLITICO Pro subscribers. Subscription benefits include access to an expanded daily Morning Tech newsletter and POLITICO Pro's exclusive suite of policy tools, nonpartisan news, real-time intelligence, in-depth analysis, bill tracking and research tools. Please visit our website to learn more about a POLITICO Pro subscription. Additionally, on April 4, 2022, POLITICO will launch a new tech-focused consumer newsletter called Digital Future Daily; this will be a high-level newsletter framing the big issues in tech impacting a broad range of professionals from Washington to Silicon Valley.
| | | — Scraping by: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the American Civil Liberties Union will sue South Carolina this morning over its prohibitions on data scraping. — Go get 'em: A new survey finds an overwhelming majority of small business owners favor tougher antitrust rules, as bills targeting tech giants creep through Congress. — Ouch, that stings: In a new letter, the FBI and Office of the Director of National Intelligence reject Sen. Ron Wyden's (D-Ore.) proposed fixes for cellphone surveillance devices known as stingrays. IT'S WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30. Welcome to Morning Tech! Look, I know polling crosstabs aren't exactly the sexiest thing, but you gotta check out these numbers on THE SLAP. Truly the rarest of polls — one where political identity had almost no bearing on the results! Scoops? Tips? Thoughts? Dog (or cat) pics? Send any and all by email to bbordelon@politico.com, or via Twitter DM to @BrendanBordelon. Got an event for our calendar? Send details to techcalendar@politicopro.com. Anything else? Team info below. And don't forget: Add @MorningTech and @PoliticoPro on Twitter.
| | | | A message from ACT|The App Association: App developers and related businesses employ more than 5.9 million Americans, across all 50 states, comprising a 1.7 trillion-dollar app economy. For small app makers, the app stores are a key ingredient to their ability to continue this incredible growth. The last thing small developers want is for Congress to undermine them so that Facebook can squirm free of software platform-imposed restrictions on its vast data collection enterprise. | | | | | | FIRST IN MT: ACLU, NAACP SUE S.C. OVER DATA SCRAPING BAN: The ACLU, its South Carolina affiliate and the South Carolina wing of the NAACP will file a federal lawsuit this morning against the state's Court Administration over its "absolute prohibition" on the use of data scraping — a method through which researchers can automatically collect data publicly available online — on its Public Index, which contains the state's legal documents. The groups claim the state's data-scraping ban prevents the NAACP from conducting thorough research on statewide evictions — which disproportionately impact Black South Carolinians — and violates the First Amendment by prohibiting the collection of public information "in ways that enable subsequent speech and advocacy, including advocacy in the courts." The groups plan to file the lawsuit this morning in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina. — Tight controls: South Carolina allows individuals to access the state's eviction database, but prevents them from using data scraping techniques to lift larger quantities of data at any one time. The restrictions are both legal — the Public Index's terms of service forbid data scraping — and in some cases technical, employing tools that freeze a web browser when it repeatedly queries the site. — Taking the fight to the states: Governments and some businesses have fought for years with advocacy groups over data scraping, which opponents of the practice argue can slow down websites, provide unfair advantages to businesses that use scraping and weaken user privacy. The debate has historically centered less on states and more on the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. One provision in the law prohibits users from "exceed[ing] authorized access" to a computer — which had until recently been interpreted as a ban on data scraping. But in 2020 (and in response to another ACLU lawsuit), a federal court ruled that scraping publicly available portions of a website did not violate the CFAA, and the Supreme Court upheld a relatively narrow reading of the law in a separate case the following year. Some questions still remain. Last year the Supreme Court also revived a challenge to data scraping practices brought by Microsoft-owned social media network LinkedIn, kicking the issue back to a lower court in the light of its new ruling on the CFAA. FIRST IN MT: IT'S HARD OUT HERE FOR A SMALL BIZ — The vast majority of small business owners believe large companies have unfair advantages over smaller players, according to a new survey out today from advocacy group Small Business Majority . Of the 500 entrepreneurs surveyed, 82 percent said they support updating the laws to better protect consumers and small businesses, and almost as many backed greater enforcement of existing antitrust laws. Small businesses highlighted a number of practices by dominant players they saw as unfair. That included self-preferencing, where a company gives advantages to its own products; predatory pricing, where companies sell below cost to gain market share; and making copycat versions of popular products created by small entrepreneurs. The House Judiciary Committee accused Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook parent Meta of all three in its 2020 antitrust probe into the tech giants. — Klobuchar weighs in: The Small Business Majority will host an event this afternoon featuring the National Economic Council's Bharat Ramamurti and Senate Judiciary antitrust subpanel chair Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), who will discuss how antitrust reform can benefit small businesses. Klobuchar's antitrust legislation, the American Innovation and Choice Act (S. 2992 ), would bar the tech giants from self-preferencing. — Dueling polls: Both critics and proponents of tech-focused antitrust efforts like to claim they're fighting for small businesses. For example, last week the conservative Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council released a poll last week of 316 small business owners and found 61 percent were worried that new federal regulations on the largest tech companies would hurt their bottom lines.
| | | | SUBSCRIBE TO NATIONAL SECURITY DAILY : Keep up with the latest critical developments from Ukraine and across Europe in our daily newsletter, National Security Daily. The Russian invasion of Ukraine could disrupt the established world order and result in a refugee crisis, increased cyberattacks, rising energy costs and additional disruption to global supply chains. Go inside the top national security and foreign-policymaking shops for insight on the global threats faced by the U.S. and its allies and what actions world leaders are taking to address them. Subscribe today. | | | | | WYDEN REBUFFED ON STINGRAYS — Federal efforts to ensure Americans' phones can't be easily surveilled or prevent devices from impersonating nearby cell towers are presently divvied up between a slew of agencies. And that won't be changing anytime soon, aides in the FBI and the ODNI told Wyden in a letter being released later today and shared with Sam. The letter comes four months after Wyden first asked the leaders of the FCC and intelligence agencies to explain which of them is directly responsible for ensuring U.S. phone networks cannot be easily surveilled by foreign governments, and to share more details about which of their offices have the authority to handle other telecom surveillance concerns. That included protecting government facilities from falling prey to cell site simulators — also known as stingrays — that pretend to be a nearby cell tower to intercept calls. Matthew Rhoades, ODNI's assistant director of legislative affairs, and Jill Tyson, the FBI's assistant director of congressional affairs, told Wyden that federal agencies "continue to take a unified interagency approach to address such threats." — Not a hypothetical: A foreign power (widely believed to be Israel ) was discovered to have planted stingrays around the White House and other sensitive locations during the Trump administration in an apparent bid to spy on U.S. officials' electronic communications. — We're good, thanks: Wyden had asked that the Biden administration consider several measures to "secure America's phone networks," including a requirement that federal workers' phone and text communications all be secured with end-to-end encryption. But ODNI and the FBI did not commit to any of those ideas, saying they could come with "potentially significant associated costs and implementation challenges." In a statement shared with Sam, Wyden said his recommendations were "proven strategies for securing our phone networks against these attacks" and said the federal government "needs to put someone in charge" of addressing the stingray threat. Last year Wyden introduced S. 2122, a bill that would bar the use of stingrays to surveil U.S. persons without a warrant and allow people who are illegally surveilled to sue the stingray operator.
| | | | A message from ACT|The App Association:   | | | FIRST IN MT: HOUSE LOOKS TO ADD AI RULES IN COMPETITIVENESS BILL: House lawmakers are working to shoehorn a new bipartisan bill into the pending competitiveness package that would update and tighten rules around the federal government's use of AI tools — including facial recognition and certain algorithms. "It's important that we update our policies to preserve the American people's privacy and identify and eliminate the discriminatory biases sometimes found in AI technology," said Rep. Brenda Lawrence (D-Mich.) in regards to today's introduction of the GOOD AI Act, which she introduced together with Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (R-Ohio). — Proper hygiene: The new bill is identical to existing Senate legislation (S. 3035) sponsored by Sens. Gary Peters (D-Mich) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and introduced last October. Among other things, it would establish an "AI Hygiene Working Group" at the Office of Management and Budget that would require OMB to set and periodically update the ways federal agencies train and use AI tools. — Making a conference play: A conference committee between the House and Senate is expected to begin shortly over their rival competitiveness bills, H.R. 4521 and S. 1260. The language of the GOOD AI Act is similar to existing provisions in the Senate-passed bill, but was not included in the legislation passed by the House. Lawrence spokesperson Cody Sibulo said it's "appropriate and important" that the GOOD AI Act be included in the final competitiveness package. Lawrence is a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, which is chaired by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.). A committee spokesperson said Maloney will likely be part of the conference process on the competitiveness bills, and that the GOOD AI Act is "being discussed" as the two chambers work out their differences. BEDOYA VOTE ON DECK: Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced late on Tuesday that the Senate will vote Wednesday on a discharge petition to bring to the Senate floor the nomination of Alvaro Bedoya, whose successful confirmation would create a Democratic majority at the FTC. (Because the Senate Commerce Committee deadlocked on Bedoya's nomination, a discharge petition is required to force a final vote.)
| | | Michael B. Greenwald has been named global lead for digital assets at Amazon Web Services. ... Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr. and former Deputy Director and acting Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Michael J. Morell have joined the national security advisory board at the American Edge Project. ... Intel announced the opening of a new AI lab at Chandler-Gilbert Community College in Arizona.
| | Silicon Valley Must-Reads | | Matter of time: Russia's digital regulator is poised to fine Google for its failure to remove videos about the war in Ukraine from its YouTube video platform, the Washington Post reports. Livestream limits: The Wall Street Journal reports that the Chinese government is preparing to seriously restrict the country's $30-billion live streaming industry — the latest in a series of crackdowns Beijing has pursued against its tech sector in recent months.
| | | | STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president's ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today. | | | | | | | | So which is it? A letter from former top U.S. national security officials claims antitrust bills targeting the top tech platforms would improve U.S. security (but other former officials have made the opposite claim). No new DMCA: Pinterest, Reddit, Etsy and other secondary tech platforms are urging Senate Judiciary leadership to reject big changes to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act proposed by Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.). Tips, comments, suggestions? Send them along via email to our team: Heidi Vogt (hvogt@politico.com), Konstantin Kakaes (kkakaes@politico.com ), Emily Birnbaum (ebirnbaum@politico.com), Brendan Bordelon (bbordelon@politico.com), John Hendel (jhendel@politico.com), Rebecca Kern (rkern@politico.com) and Leah Nylen (lnylen@politico.com). Got an event for our calendar? Send details to techcalendar@politicopro.com. And don't forget: Add @MorningTech and @PoliticoPro on Twitter. Have a great day!
| | | | A message from ACT|The App Association: The American Innovation and Choice Online Act (S. 2992) and the Open App Markets Act (S. 2710) would prohibit the app stores' privacy controls that prevent Facebook from tracking you across apps without your express consent. The proposals would open up treasure troves of consumers' most sensitive data, and yet we still lack a strong federal privacy law that sets rules of the road for protecting, processing, and providing transparency about personal information. Congress should ditch these ill-conceived antitrust bills and focus on what consumers and small businesses really want - comprehensive national privacy legislation. The last thing small developers want is for Congress to undermine them so that Facebook can squirm free of software platform-imposed restrictions on its vast data collection enterprise. | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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