A total of 189.2 million Americans watched 47.1 billion online content videos in November, said comScore Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1cz5XHe). Views of video ads totaled 26.8 billion, said the report. Google Sites were the top “online video content property” with 163.5 million unique viewers, driven primarily by YouTube, the report said. AOL ranked second with 73 million viewers, followed by Facebook (66.2 million), News Distribution Network (51 million) and Yahoo (45.8 million), said the report.

The Telehealth Modernization Act was introduced Tuesday by Reps. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., and Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, to “provide principles that states can look to for guidance when developing new policies that govern telehealth,” said a joint news release from the members. The release did not say to which committee the bill, which has yet to be given a number, will be referred. Johnson and Matsui serve on the House Commerce Committee, which oversees healthcare and technology issues, the release said. “The Telehealth Modernization Act will create a nationwide telehealth definition to provide clarity regarding the scope of healthcare services that can be safely delivered via telehealth,” said Matsui. “Having worked in the IT industry for over 30 years, I know first-hand the benefits associated with technological innovation,” Johnson said. He cofounded Johnson-Schley Management Group, an information technology consulting company, and helped form J2 Business Solutions, where he provided IT support as a defense contractor to the U.S. military. “In rural districts such as my own, telehealth can increase access to quality care and lower costs,” he said. All 50 states have varying telehealth regulations, the release said. “Telehealth is a central component for creating a technology enabled healthcare system that will increase access to care and lower costs,” said Joel White, executive director of the Health IT Now Coalition, in the release. White supports the bill.

A House bill asks for better disclosure from the intelligence community. Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., introduced HR-3779 Monday, and it was referred to the House Intelligence Committee. His co-sponsor is Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a backer of surveillance law updates. Both are members of the Intelligence Committee. The bill text is not yet posted online, and neither the office of Himes nor Schiff was able to provide it to us Tuesday. The bill’s long title said the legislation would “require the Director of National Intelligence to annually submit reports on violations of law or executive order by personnel of the intelligence community, and for other purposes.” Members of Congress have debated intelligence community violations in their examination of surveillance law this session.

The administration’s nominee for Central Intelligence Agency general counsel does not personally believe phone surveillance violates the Fourth Amendment, she told the Senate. The Senate Intelligence Committee held an open hearing Tuesday reviewing the nomination of Caroline Diane Krass, currently principal deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel, to be CIA general counsel. Multiple senators quizzed her on Monday’s Klayman v. Obama district court ruling that National Security Agency phone surveillance likely violates the Fourth Amendment (CD Dec 17 p3). Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, raised the question early on. “I haven’t had a chance to study it carefully,” but the decision reflects the battle over the “appropriate balance” being sought in surveillance law, Krass told him of the ruling. Congress appears poised for “legislative response” and she would follow any laws enacted, she said. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, followed up: “I want to ask your personal opinion of whether or not you agree with the judge’s decision.” Krass did not agree, she said. “I have a different view of the Fourth Amendment,” one in which phone metadata are not protected, Krass said, calling the 1979 Supreme Court decision in Smith v. Maryland “good law.” That case has lent legal backing to the U.S. treatment of metadata. She did say much has changed since then and some of those factors are “worth considering.” In written answers to Senate Intelligence questions submitted before the hearing, Krass said she’s not “personally familiar with the CIA’s Attorney General Approved-procedures” on the collection, retention or dissemination of data on U.S. citizens but would make the question a priority if necessary. At the hearing, Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., reiterated an earlier statement. “I welcome a Supreme Court review,” Feinstein said. “It’s been more than 30 years” since Smith v. Maryland, she said, telling the nominee, “I think your position is really most important in this. … You are going to encounter some heat from us in that regard.” It’s hard to exercise oversight if the legality is murky, Feinstein said. King said “secret agencies tend toward abuse” and told Krass to be an advocate for the people of the U.S., not the director of the CIA or director of national intelligence.

ViaSat’s Exede Evolution satellite Internet plan will offer unlimited access for email and webpages using download speedus of up to 12 Mbps and upload speeds of up to 3 Mbps. The service “eliminates data usage caps for these essential online services and provides a fixed cap for other activities, such as video streaming,” ViaSat said in a press release (http://bit.ly/18xcdDJ). ViaSat is offering the plan in 30 states, “which includes much of the Exede national footprint,” it said. The expansion of the service plan represents the second phase of its introduction earlier this year, ViaSat said.

Several lawmakers praised Monday’s ruling by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that National Security Agency phone surveillance likely violates the Fourth Amendment (CD Dec 17 p3). Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Mark Udall, D-Colo., praised the ruling on Monday. But Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., pointed to other legal support for surveillance and said the Supreme Court must resolve the question. “Clearly we have competing decisions from those of at least three different courts (the FISA Court, the D.C. District Court and the Southern District of California),” Feinstein said in a statement Tuesday (http://1.usa.gov/19QvjQn). “I have found the analysis by the FISA Court, the Southern District of California and the position of the Department of Justice, based on the Supreme Court decision in [1979’s Smith v. Maryland], to be compelling.” Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., author of the original Patriot Act and the surveillance overhaul the USA Freedom Act, said the decision “highlights the need to pass” his legislation, according to his office (http://1.usa.gov/1bMrU8n). “I am encouraged by the district court’s ruling,” Sensenbrenner said. “It will add to the growing momentum behind the USA FREEDOM Act, which has garnered support from a large, diverse bloc of my colleagues and the business community. The Executive Branch should join Congress to institute meaningful reform.” Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Tom Udall, D-N.M., Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., support the ruling and back updates to surveillance law. The ruling “hits the nail on the head,” Wyden said (http://1.usa.gov/1gD2yOA), in particular highlighting the ruling’s emphasis on the ineffectiveness of the surveillance. “This ruling dismisses the use of an outdated Supreme Court decision affecting rotary phones as a defense.” Paul said the ruling is “an important first step in having the constitutionality of government surveillance programs decided in the regular court system rather than a secret court where only one side is presented,” calling phone surveillance an abuse (http://1.usa.gov/18Oxu6G). “Today’s ruling is an important first step toward reining in this agency but we must go further,” Sanders said (http://1.usa.gov/IRlBX6). “I will be working as hard as I can to pass the strongest legislation possible to end the abuses by the NSA and other intelligence agencies.” Blumenthal backed congressional action, “creating greater transparency and a special advocate whose client is the Constitution to advocate on behalf of Americans’ liberty and privacy,” he said (http://1.usa.gov/1hYbYEO). Tom Udall said he hopes Monday’s “ruling will prove to be an important milestone on the path toward increased transparency and comprehensive reforms to our surveillance programs, including an end to bulk phone record collection and the creation of a new privacy advocate within the secretive FISA court” (http://1.usa.gov/18SLmQl). Privacy advocates and Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor responsible for the surveillance leaks earlier this year, also hailed the ruling.

Common Cause backed the FCC pulling a draft media ownership order circulated by then-Chairman Julius Genachowski that was a “bad idea to allow billionaire moguls to control even more of our media,” said the nonprofit on its blog Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1jfr7Df). It said current Chairman Tom Wheeler deserves credit for saying the draft will be reworked. The order, which would have allowed some types of broadcaster-newspaper cross ownership while attributing some TV station resource sharing deals in a way that might have curtailed them, was yanked from circulation earlier this month (CD Dec 16 p1). “It was an ugly dinosaur still stalking the Commission’s hallways long after it should have been extinct,” said Special Adviser to the Media and Democracy Reform Initiative Michael Copps, a former Democratic commissioner. “Maybe, just maybe, the new FCC will go on from here to become a true protector of the people’s interest on the people’s airwaves.”

Dish Network and Sprint plan to develop and deploy next year a fixed wireless broadband service trial in Corpus Christi, Texas, the companies said Tuesday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1jeRERc). Depending on a customer’s location, Dish will install either a ruggedized outdoor router or an indoor solution, they said. Both solutions will feature built-in high-gain antennas to receive the 4G test-driven development long term evolution signal on Sprint’s 2.5 GHz spectrum, they said. The companies plan to expand into additional markets in the future, they said.

U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman should prioritize dismantling “protectionist” data flow policies through Trans-Pacific Partnership, Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, and Trade in International Services Agreement negotiations, said 18 House members in a Friday letter (http://1.usa.gov/1cxbuhJ). Some EU officials are pushing initiatives that undermine the U.S. ability to compete in the European market, such as an EU-only information sharing cloud and an EU information technology conglomerate, said the lawmakers. Protectionist EU IT policies threaten the $2.1 trillion in U.S. investment in the EU, the lawmakers said. “This mutually beneficial relationship would not be possible without constant streams of data between the EU and the U.S,” said legislators. “Halting cross-border data flows will, by many measures, simply stifle cross-border trade.” Congressional High Tech Caucus co-chairs Michael McCaul, R-Texas, and Doris Matsui, D-Calif., led the letter. The lawmakers listed issues of concern both in and out of the U.S. After issuing a decree that requires Brazilian federal government agencies use only federally provided telecom and IT services, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is pursuing data localization legislation, said the lawmakers. “Meanwhile, some German officials have called on the EU to review Safe Harbor, the only mechanism through which U.S. and European companies can exchange information in compliance with the laws of the nations in which they conduct business” (CD Oct 24 p10), said members of Congress. “Canada has increased the number of federal government Requests for Proposals (RFPs) invoking a ‘national security exemption’ and requiring IT vendors who bid for projects to keep all or portions of data within Canada.” U.S. Lawmakers recently introduced the Digital Trade Act of 2013 in an effort to prevent or eliminate cross-border Internet data flow restrictions by establishing negotiating principles for digital trade issues in future U.S. trade agreements.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., named the invited witnesses for Wednesday’s scheduled hearing on data brokers (http://1.usa.gov/1bIkFOs). Rockefeller announced the hearing last week. The FTC is to release its own study on data brokers in early 2014 (CD Nov 18 p21), and the FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection Director Jessica Rich will represent the agency Wednesday. Don Robert, CEO of Experian -- a company that has been part of Rockefeller’s ongoing investigation into data broker business practices (CD Oct 11/12 p12) -- will also testify. Direct Marketing Association Senior Vice President-Government Affairs Jerry Cerasale is to testify on behalf of industry. World Privacy Forum Executive Director Pam Dixon will represent WPF’s privacy interests. And Annenberg School for Communication Associate Dean for Graduate Studies Joseph Turow will testify.