Tech Policy Podcast

Over the last few years, bitcoin and other virtual currencies have become increasingly viable alternatives to traditional money. Yet for most people, bitcoin is still a pretty obscure subject. What exactly is bitcoin? How does the blockchain work? Who’s in charge? Where does it derive its value? What does it mean to mine bitcoin? Evan is joined by Michael Bombace, TechFreedom adjunct fellow, who s...

As the demand for mobile data explodes, so does the need for spectrum holders to free up the airwaves for wireless carriers. While free, over-the-air television is still available using an antenna, Americans are much more likely to get their video through cable or Internet streaming. Last month, the FCC began its incentive auction of broadcast spectrum, whereby television stations sell spectrum to...

This week, the Department of Justice approved the merger of Charter and Time Warner Cable, the sixth and third biggest broadband providers in America. If the agency thinks the merger will benefit consumers without harming competition, why is the FCC attaching conditions to the deal? Is this consumer protection? Or regulation by extortion? Evan and Berin discuss. For more, see our statement .

Last week, Uber settled a class-action lawsuit alleging that the company misclassified its drivers as independent contractors rather than employees. While the settlement carries no legal precedent, it does mean that Uber can continue with its current business model while paying out up to $100 million to the plaintiffs — with $25 million alone going to attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan, who has sued se...

The FCC wants to “unlock” the cable box. But shouldn’t the agency be helping to kill the box? The FCC recently proposed rules that would force cable, satellite, and telco video providers to make their programming accessible through third-party apps. Sure, it sounds great in theory, but the proposal poses serious concerns around privacy, piracy, and the way that independent and minority-owned progr...

These days, it costs almost nothing to publish information online. So why isn’t more government information available to the public? Taxpayers spend $100 million a year on the Congressional Research Service (CRS), but only Congress gets to decide whether the research gets published. Is that fair? Should the CRS just put it all online? Evan is joined by Kevin Kosar, Senior Fellow at the R Street In...

Our national student debt is sittin’ pretty at $1.3 trillion, and the number is rising by $3,000 every second. Can technology help solve the problem of ballooning student debt? Evan is joined by Liz Wessel, CEO of WayUP , a company whose mission is to get every college student the job — or jobs — they need to pay off student debt and have a fruitful career. What makes WayUP different? How is techn...

When the encryption debate is so often framed as “Apple v. FBI,” it’s easy to forget that digital security is a global issue. Nonetheless, how the United States decides to handle the issue will have an outsized impact on the rest of the world. Evan is joined by Amie Stepanovich , US policy manager at Access Now, an international civil society group dedicated to human rights in technology. She argu...

While the FCC chooses not to regulate the prices that consumers pay for residential broadband — for now — the same isn’t true for businesses. Special access services are dedicated connections used by businesses to transmit voice and data. The FCC regulates the price of special access lines to ensure they’re provided at “reasonable” rates and terms and conditions. The Commission is looking at updat...

Uber’s surge pricing has come under fire — and not just from drunk passengers who paid exorbitant fares for rides home on New Years’ Eve. A new lawsuit alleges that Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and anyone who signs up to drive for Uber is party to an illegal conspiracy to fix prices. Is surge pricing just a reflection of supply and demand and economics 101? Or is it something nefarious. Jared Meyer, a...

Before the last FCC monthly meeting, GOP Commissioners Pai and O’Rielly (previous guests of the show) struck a deal with Democrat Commissioner Mignon Clyburn on Lifeline. The Universal Service program subsidizes access to communications services for low-income Americans. This rare moment of bipartisanship at the politicized FCC would have extended Lifeline to cover broadband while capping its budg...

Is email privacy finally happening?  Will Congress finally protect the privacy of Americans’ emails? Will law enforcement finally be required to get a warrant before accessing the private files we store in the cloud? After six years, the House Judiciary Committee is finally marking up the Email Privacy Act — which has the support of over 70% of the House. But what will the Senate do? And what abou...

FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly joins the show to discuss the Commission’s foray into privacy. What exactly does the FCC have to do with Internet privacy? Nothing — until recently. Before the agency reclassified broadband under telephone-style regulation in the name of “net neutrality,” the privacy practices of Internet service providers (ISPs) were regulated by the Federal Trade Commission — not t...

Last week, a pair of Senators introduced a bill that was overwhelmingly described by technology experts as “ludicrous, dangerous, and technically illiterate.” That’s because critics say the bill would effectively ban end-to-end encryption, a basic practice of digital security that protects privacy and cybersecurity but can also be used by terrorists and criminals to avoid detection. The “Complianc...

Pre-paid “burner” phones are often associated with the illegal world, whether it’s drug dealing, organized crime, or even terrorism. But for most consumers, they offer legitimate benefits, including privacy protections and an alternative to lengthy phone contracts. In the wake of the Brussels attacks, some lawmakers are turning their sights on burner phones. Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-CA) rece...

What’s the FCC been up to lately? Short answer: a lot. Luckily for us, a special guest, FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly, made time to join the show to discuss broadband subsidies, Netflix throttling, and the agency’s “inquiry” into zero-rating programs. Why did the FCC’s monthly meeting get delayed for several hours last week? Why isn’t the Commission looking into Neflix’s throttling of AT&T an...

3D printing is revolutionizing manufacturing, but not without controversy. The technology has made printing guns in your home relatively easy and cheap using open-source code provided by organizations like Defense Distributed. The nonprofit came under fire from the State Department, which alleged that disseminating code to print 3D guns is akin to international arms trafficking. Evan is joined by...

How much do the presidential campaigns know about you? Most Americans are probably aware that tech companies and intelligence agencies collect their personal information — albeit for very different reasons. But perhaps less known are the data collection practices of the 2016 campaigns. Evan is joined by TechFreedom intern Ashley Holmes, a graduate student at George Washington University studying g...

Is the FCC f***ing with your Call of Duty? Could strict net neutrality regulation make online video gaming worse? The FCC's Title II reclassification of broadband included a blanket ban on paid prioritization of Internet traffic, even if done at the request of the user. Net neutrality activists called that a win for consumers, but prioritization could improve lag-sensitive services like online gam...

How friendly is your city to short-term rentals? As Airbnb, Home Away, and other home-sharing platforms grow in popularity, they run into a hodgepodge of local regulations that differ, sometimes even by zip code. Evan is joined by Andrew Moylan, Senior Fellow at the R Street Institute. They discuss Roomscore.org , a new website that grades cities on their home-sharing regulations.

Last week, Netflix copped to deliberately downgrading its video quality for AT&T and Verizon customers for the past five years -- without telling anyone. While the throttling isn't a net neutrality violation per se, since Netflix is not a broadband provider, it looks pretty hypocritical given the company's heated, absolutist rhetoric on the treatment of Internet traffic. It certainly poses serious...

You may not know much about the most important agency in Washington when it comes to regulating new technologies. The Federal Trade Commission, or FTC for short, is for better or worse, becoming the Federal Technology Commission. This week, FTC Commissioner Julie Brill resigned, leaving a second seat for Congress to fill. What does a second vacancy mean for the agency? Can the agency protect consu...

Apple’s battle with the FBI in California is on hold for now, but the battle is far from over. This week, a federal magistrate postponed a court hearing on the case scheduled for Tuesday. Initially, the FBI had asked Apple to help it unlock the iPhone of Syed Farook, one of the San Bernardino shooters. But now, the agency is saying it found an “outside party,” rumored to be an Israeli cybersecurit...

What exactly is the “sharing economy?” Regulatory battles with Uber and Airbnb make for flashy headlines, but how much do we know about the sharing economy as a whole? Is the term even accurate? Should we be calling it the “gig economy” instead? Evan is joined by Will Rinehart, Director of Technology and Innovation Policy at American Action Forum. They discuss the history of the gig economy, wheth...

As cities like Chattanooga, TN and Wilson, NC look to expand government-owned broadband networks (GONs) beyond their borders, they’re running into state laws that authorize, but restrict, GONs. How much control should states have over these networks? The FCC says it can overturn specific provisions of state broadband laws under its Section 706 authority to “promote broadband deployment.” But does...