Mobile privacy stakeholders drafting a voluntary code of conduct on how mobile apps use short-form notices to tell users about data collection and use are working to address potential FTC concerns, Pam Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum and one of the draft’s authors, told us ahead of Tuesday’s stakeholder meeting. At the previous meeting of the process, being facilitated by NTIA, Chris Olsen, assistant director of the FTC’s Division of Privacy and Identity Protection, laid out potential concerns the agency might have with the draft code, including how the code requires apps to gain consent from users when making material retroactive changes and the extent to which the code deals with app platforms (CD April 5 p7).

U.S. radio stations face challenges improving their perception amid declines in on-air ads now versus before the Great Recession, and online and other initiatives with potential not fully realized, said some industry insiders we surveyed. They said an ongoing FCC auction of commercial FM-station construction permits points up the economic hardships of running stations in small markets, where many of the CPs are. Increasing competition in markets of all sizes from streaming media and online ad rates lower than stations charge per over-the-air listener are challenges, said executives and analysts. Some were optimistic that, between terrestrial and digital spots, ads will return to pre-recession levels. Others said that won’t happen.

The privacy and civil liberties protections being included in the White House’s Cybersecurity Framework are still in the early stages of development, but policy experts at leading privacy groups tell us they do not believe the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) is likely to be a factor. Privacy groups criticized CISPA when the House passed it earlier this month because of what they saw as insufficient privacy protections (CD April 19 p6) . But those groups also see the Senate as unlikely to take up the bill, scuttling its chances of affecting the framework. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said Tuesday that he views CISPA as a “sort of useless bill” that “can’t guide us at all” (CD April 24 p12) . The committee did not respond to a request for further comment. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are collaborating to lead development of the Cybersecurity Framework, a set of standards and best practices, in response to President Barack Obama’s February cybersecurity order (CD Feb 14 p1) .

A group of East Coast states is seeking information about the potential nationwide wireless public safety broadband network, amid concerns about the network processes. The Mid-Atlantic Consortium for Interoperable Nationwide Advanced Communications, known as the MACINAC Initiative, released a 15-page request for information last week. It cited a desire to support FirstNet’s planned nationwide network as well as to look at what Mark Grubb, director of the Delaware Department of Safety and Homeland Security, called a cost-effective and workable solution for the Mid-Atlantic region as a whole.

The FCC may be putting too much focus on cutting abuses in the Lifeline program and not enough on making sure everyone who needs support gets it, said members of the agency’s Consumer Advisory Committee. Lifeline reform was the subject of a contentious hearing Thursday by the House Communications Subcommittee (CD April 26 p1), the day before CAC met at commission headquarters.

The U.S. Air Force expects to release an RFP next month inviting commercial satellite operators to vie for a contract to team up with the government on commercially hosted payload missions. The indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract addresses the government’s effort to take advantage of the commercial sector’s faster launch timelines and streamline the acquisition process, said Col. Scott Beidleman, development planning director at the Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC), Los Angeles Air Force Base. Intelsat plans to submit a proposal and XTAR will monitor the progress of the contract, executives at those companies said in interviews.

AT&T Friday rolled out its Digital Life home security and home automation platform Friday in 15 markets with “aggressive” plans to be in 50 markets by year-end, said Kevin Petersen, senior vice president-AT&T Digital Life Services. Initial markets are Atlanta, Austin, Boulder, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Philadelphia, Riverside, Calif., San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis and select areas of the New York and New Jersey metropolitan area, the company said in a news release Friday (http://soc.att.com/15Mm6e5).

Telcos and carriers in favor of the FCC’s USF/intercarrier compensation (ICC) reforms filed several briefs Wednesday supporting the agency’s 2011 order. The FCC “ably refutes” the various claims, intervenors told the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, but they wrote separately to “highlight” several points.

Fred Campbell, chief of the Wireless Bureau during the FCC’s 2008 auction of 700 MHz spectrum, said experience shows that imposing too many rules on an auction can have a chilling effect on bids. Campbell and other speakers discussed the pending incentive auction of broadcast TV spectrum during a webinar Thursday sponsored by his group, the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Communications Liberty & Innovation Project, and law firm Wiley Rein.

Undecided Supreme Court case Fisher v. University of Texas could limit FCC efforts to encourage diversity in broadcasting, said a presentation to the commission’s Diversity Committee Thursday. Akin Gump lawyer Ruthanne Deutsch said she and others who follow the Supreme Court believe the court will hand down a decision striking down the University of Texas program that factors race into admissions, which she said would leave “a very very tiny tiny window” for government programs considering race. Minority Media and Telecommunications Counsel Executive Director David Honig said diversity in media law “flows from” education diversity law, and that such a decision “could affect a great deal” of what the commission might do to encourage diversity in the communications industry.