There was a one percent decrease in the number of federal and state intercepts for wire, oral or electronic communications authorized in 2014 from 2013, said the 2014 Wiretap Report published Wednesday by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, which is required to report to the figures to Congress each year. The numbers don't include data on interceptions authorized and regulated by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, it said. A total 3,554 wiretaps were reported as authorized in 2014, with 1,279 intercepts authorized by federal judges and 2,275 authorized by state judges, it said. Wire surveillance on a telephone, whether by landline, cellular, cordless or mobile, accounted for 93 percent of all applications, it said. The number of wiretaps approved by federal judges decreased by 13 percent in 2014 from 2013 figures, but state judges approved 8 percent more applications, it said. One state wiretap application was denied in 2014, it said. The most state judge requests -- 43 percent -- were authorized in California. The District of Arizona authorized the most federal wiretaps, at 7 percent of all applications, it said.

The first line of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court’s opinion that reauthorized the NSA's mass surveillance of telephone records -- “the more things change, the more they stay the same” -- is telling, wrote Electronic Frontier Foundation Staff Attorney Andrew Crocker and Activism Director Rainey Reitman in a blog post Wednesday. The court may have referred to the collection program running one last time until Nov. 29, but could have “also been describing its disappointing business-as-usual approach to deciding how the recently passed USA Freedom Act affected this program,” Crocker and Reitman said. “Bigger changes are on the horizon, but in the meantime the court reached the unsurprising conclusion that the phone records program can continue because of language in USA Freedom allowing for a six-month transition period before the Act’s stronger limitations on bulk surveillance take full effect,” they said. Noteworthy items from the FISC opinion include the court’s accepting an amicus brief, allowing bulk collection to continue for six months, criticizing the 2nd Circuit’s view that the telephone metadata surveillance program was illegal (see 1505070041), and saying third-party doctrine trumps constitutional concerns, Crocker and Reitman said. The third-party U.S. legal theory says if someone gives information to a third party, the person has no right to expect privacy for that information.

Worldwide IT spending will decline 5.5 percent in 2015, though in constant-currency terms the market is projected to grow 2.5 percent to $3.5 trillion, Gartner predicted Tuesday in a forecast report. Gartner previously projected that IT spending would decline 1.3 percent during 2015 and would grow 3.1 percent in constant currency. Communications services will continue to dominate IT spending through the end of the year, with expenditures in that segment to total almost $1.5 trillion, Gartner said. Spending on IT services will total $914 billion, while device spending will total $654 billion, Gartner said. “We want to stress that this is not a market crash,” said Gartner Vice President-Research John-David Lovelock in a statement. “Such are the illusions that large swings in the value of the U.S. dollar versus other currencies can create.” However, “vendors do have to raise prices to protect costs and margins of their products, and enterprises and consumers will have to make new purchase decisions in light of the new prices,” Lovelock said.

AOL will assume management and sales responsibility for all Microsoft display, mobile and video advertising inventory in nine markets -- the U.S., Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain and the U.K., said a joint news release Tuesday. AOL will represent Microsoft’s online brands like the MSN homepage, Outlook mail, Skype, Xbox and ads in apps, they said. The success of AOL’s One, the first cross-screen programmatic advertising platform with integrated multitouch attribution optimizing campaigns from Web to TV, which launched in April, let AOL take on additional demand and inventory, they said. Under the agreement covering AOL’s expanded partnership with Microsoft, AOL will transition to using the Bing-powered search engine beginning Jan. 1, said the companies. Verizon last week bought AOL (see 1506230044).

Friday’s 5-4 Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage “not only is a step forward for equality and humanity, it allows American businesses to attract the best employees without regard to the marriage laws of their state,” CEA President Gary Shapiro said in a statement. That’s why “a progressive and inclusive view of marriage is pro-business, pro-innovation policy,” Shapiro said. Diversity is served because “my nation's highest court recognizes that a person should not be discriminated against on the basis of their sexuality,” he said. Other tech leaders reacting to the decision included Apple CEO Tim Cook, who tweeted: “Today marks a victory for equality, perseverance and love.” For Verizon, "when you’re in the business of connecting people across the planet, diversity needs to be a part of your DNA and your blueprint for success," wrote Senior Vice President-Public Policy and Government Affairs Mike Glover on the carrier's blog Friday.

Many Americans, especially African-Americans and Hispanics, are still struggling to find jobs, but broadband offers some hope, said Ralph Everett, senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Center for Business and Public Policy, in a white paper. Everett said the USF Lifeline program can help. “The FCC’s Lifeline program, if updated to cover broadband, can help ensure that young students and other lower income Americans can fully participate in the 21st century economy,” he said. But changes are needed. Lifeline “needs to be revised so that consumers are empowered to decide for themselves what communications services best meet their needs, and are provided the financial assistance to take advantage of this right to choose,” he wrote. “In addition, and this is critical to success, the program must be reformed to wring out waste, fraud, and abuse in order to maximize the dollars available to those who qualify for assistance.”

Frontier Secure is knocking $150 off the price of a Nest thermostat to $99 for subscribers who update the speed of their Internet service, the company said Tuesday. “The Internet has become so much more than smartphones, tablets and computers,” said Kelly Morgan, general manager. The connected Nest thermostat helps consumers save 10-15 percent on energy usage, said Frontier.

The FCC Task Force on Optimal Public Safety Answering Point Architecture holds its third meeting July 27, the FCC said in notice in the Federal Register Tuesday. The task force is to vote on the recommendations and report of Working Group 3, “Optimal Approach to Next-Generation 911 Resource Allocation for PSAPs,” the FCC said. The meeting starts at 1 p.m. in the Commission Meeting Room at FCC headquarters in Washington.

Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos was among those attending a Democratic National Committee fundraiser featuring President Barack Obama in Beverly Hills, California, Thursday at the home of filmmaker Tyler Perry, said White House pool reports. About 250 supporters paid $2,500 to $33,400 each to attend, the reports said. Netflix has been a vocal lobbying force in the net neutrality debates for more than a year and strongly pressured the FCC to reclassify broadband as a Communications Act Title II service, as Obama himself did in November.

The FCC set the comment deadlines on a March NPRM on Part 4 outage reporting rules (see 1503300066). The NPRM is aimed at improving “the reliability and resiliency of the Nation’s communication system, in particular to strengthen the Nation’s 911 system,” said a Wednesday notice. Comments are due July 16, replies July 31.