If Uber can be compelled to give access to records without a subpoena, we all can be. I'm not an Uber fan, but I don't have a problem with this behavior.

We could call it something like "Capital Gains Tax" maybe?

I read the first two sentences of the story excerpt aloud to my husband. Our kitchen-table-top Echo Dot then cheerily announced through its external speakers: "Shuffling songs by Rick Astley!" So thanks to Amazon Prime I now know that Astley recorded more than just THE song...

It would not necessarily be insecure by design. Some access technologies, like GPON, incorporate the option for AES encryption. Most networks I've seen don't enable the feature though. You'd need very specialized equipment to sniff GPON traffic anyway. There's no reason this system couldn't be encrypted between the modem and terminating device.

It's doubtful that it was an AT&T engineer. They don't engineer their own equipment anymore since the breakup and the Bell Labs / Lucent spin off. I don't know which of their vendors is pushing this solution. This announcement is a bit out of the blue, and it sounds like a turd.

Came here to say this. I have a Nokia Steel and a friend of mine has a Steel HR and they are no hassle and look like a real watch and not a kids toy or a device for monitoring livestock. I highly recommend them for someone who is looking for a fitness tracker that is durable as fuck, doesn't nag to be recharged, and looks good no matter what you're wearing.

Amazon is not an ISP and Google is not using their ISP unit, Google Fiber, to block Amazon. This has nothing to do with Net Neutrality.

The technology to do real-time deep packet inspection is getting more and more mature. It's possible now for ISPs, if they spend the money, to differentiate P2P, Video, Gaming, VOIP et cetera type traffic in real time using rules more sophisticated than simple IP filters. It is a big investment to install the equipment and software to implement, so the ISPs want to make sure there will be no legal challenges before they start rolling it out any more blatantly.

An official diagnosis (which I got 23 years ago at age 46) can provide the excuses you mention - but it doesn't have to. An individual's awareness of their own profile of cognitive strengths and weaknesses can lead them to seek workarounds for, or make extra effort in, problem areas. Other people's informed awareness can lead them to try meeting an autistic individual halfway in reaching understanding; a useful strategy in general. Neither of those sound anything like a retreat...

Ironic that this directive comes from someone posting as an AC...

Unlikely. AT&T and VZ are gearing up for 5G expansion which is going to require them to have denser tower footprints. They'll still need all their existing tower locations as well, and will be using those existing towers in many cases as part of their fronthaul for the new towers.

The other carriers are going to have to solve this problem as well, which is one reason T-Mobile and Sprint were looking at getting hitched.

'Wood' has fewer letters than 'Concrete' therefore you save electricity every time you type it. Don't be such a climate change denier / fossil fuel apologist.

They scaled back the effort because it was much more difficult than expected and they are losing money on it. They found out they couldn't 'disrupt' fiber into the ground and that it's expensive to provide support for thousands of residential customers. They proved their point and scared a few of their competitors into moving forward with fiber rollout, in most cases more effectively than G-Fs.

Which is exactly what Apple is trying not to do. They are trying to use their size to squeeze their suppliers and the people who contributed to the R&D behind all the current technology.

I use the fingerprint reader. It's quick enough that you wouldn't see me doing it unless you were paying attention.