FCC

Verizon agreed to pay $1.35 million to settle Federal Communications Commission charges that it violated customers’ privacy when it used a hidden undeletable number to track cellphone users. In the settlement, Verizon also agreed to make its unkillable “zombie” cookie opt-in, meaning that users are not tracked by default. Previously, users had been tracked by default unless they opted out.

Republican 2016 presidential frontrunner Ted Cruz has come out against Net Neutrality, comparing it to Obamacare. With a Republican controlled Congress, what could they do to back major corporations like AT&T and Verizon and stop the FCC from preserving net neutrality?

Nearly by definition, bureaucracy operates at a snail's pace. From red tape to hurdles, the English language is filled with idioms and cliches to describe the agonizing effort it takes to see actual change at a bureaucratic level. And yet, the FCC recently responded to a petition for transparency and disclosure in political ads on television and the radio in one week. The best part? It wasn't a slam of the door, but a genuine first step in getting the data of political advertisements online and open to the public.

A TV ad-buying company with close ties to Republican Party leaders reserved a whopping 1,326 spots in the Denver market this fall, but the station receiving the $740,070 contract removed it from public view when a reporter tried to learn who was footing the bill. The deleted ad reservation at Denver’s KMGH Channel 7 came from Target Enterprises, a Los Angeles-based firm whose client list includes top Republican candidates and well-known conservative groups.

Sam Seder is joined by David Dayen to talk about the FCC's decision to nix the net neutrality law. What's next? Will there ever really be an open internet?

"The future of the open Internet can’t rest on the supposed good intentions of one chairman. Internet users and innovators need the certainty that comes with common carriage, not Wheeler’s ‘just trust me’ approach to stopping harmful behavior from providers."

In a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, U.S. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) — one of the leading opponents of Comcast's proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable — stood up for the millions of people in Minnesota and across the country who are facing rising cable and Internet costs. He called the deal bad for consumers, saying it would stifle competition and likely lead to higher costs for Minnesotans who are already being squeezed financially.

The Court's decision to allow Internet service providers is bad news for users — with the potential to turn the information super highway into a New Jersey bridge that irked Chris Christie. Even worse, it could turn an open Internet into another bastion for reality television. Really.

A court has struck down the FCC's Net Neutrality rules. Any company can now pay providers for preferential treatment — in this case, quicker access to sites for its users. Will this lead to the end of the Internet as we know it?

AT&T's new “1-800-DATA” proposal would allow big content providers — like movie studios or app developers — to pay the cost of sending data over its network. So customers can download the latest trailer or app without worrying about fees for overrunning their data caps. Sounds good, until the next moves on the chessboard to disarm net neutrality are revealed.