Hillicon Valley: Groups protest 'invasive' smart wall technologies | Officials find foreign meddling had no impact on midterms | Tech giants pull big profits despite controversy | Dems press Apple over FaceTime bug | Facebook bans insurgents in Myanmar

View in Browser     Welcome to Hillicon Valley, The Hill's newsletter detailing all you need to know about the tech and cyber news from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley. If you don't already, be sure to sign up for our newsletter with this LINK. Welcome! Follow the cyber team, Olivia Beavers (@olivia_beavers) and Jacqueline Thomsen (@jacq_thomsen), and the tech team, Harper Neidig (@hneidig) and Emily Birnbaum (@birnbaum_e).   WE WANT A NOT-SO-'SMART' WALL: A coalition of civil liberties and immigration groups are calling on Congress to refuse funding for "invasive" border technology in any deal negotiated to avoid a second government shutdown.  Democrats have floated using technology to create a "smart" border wall instead of President Trump's preferred physical barriers. But the coalition of 25 groups, including human rights and libertarian organizations, sent a letter addressed to congressional leaders raising concerns about each of the technologies proposed by House Democrats tasked with finding a border deal.   "The [proposal from House Democrats on the panel] calls for funding various invasive surveillance technologies that would intrude on the liberties of travelers, immigrants, and people who live near the border," the groups wrote in the open letter, released Tuesday. "Given that funding of border enforcement is already at a historic high, we do not believe that additional funding is needed to further fund border technology," the groups added. "There are lawmakers on both sides of the aisle that have expressed concerns about how invasive these programs already are," Evan Greer, a lead organizer with Fight for the Future's campaign, told The Hill. "My hope is that this wouldn't just play out as a partisan debate, that [lawmakers] recognize the need to act with caution and not expand surveillance programs that undermine peoples' civil liberties and constitutional rights."  Which technologies? The letter raises concerns about several of the technologies the Democrats' first proposal, released last week, could entail: drones, facial recognition technology, DNA collection, license plate readers, and more.  The groups are sounding alarms over the ways "risk-based targeting" and biometrics could result in racial profiling and harm vulnerable communities, while surveillance drones, license plate readers and DNA testing could raise serious privacy concerns for those crossing the border and living in border cities. What's next? Fight for the Future and other civil liberties groups will likely next focus their attention on putting pressure on tech companies making border technologies, Greer told The Hill.     THE HILL EVENT: Join The Hill Events for Boundless: Building a 5G World on Wednesday, Feb. 6th featuring Reps. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.) and John Curtis (R-Utah). Editor-in-Chief Bob Cusack and Hill.TV's Jamal Simmons will sit down with our guests for a series of conversations on the impact of 5G on all aspects of society. RSVP here.     A SUCCESS? The Trump administration on Tuesday announced that it has found no evidence that any foreign entity had a "material impact" on election systems during the 2018 midterms. Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen reached that conclusion in a joint classified report submitted to President Trump on Monday, the departments of Justice and Homeland Security said in a joint statement. "Although the specific conclusions within the joint report must remain classified, the Departments have concluded there is no evidence to date that any identified activities of a foreign government or foreign agent had a material impact on the integrity or security of election infrastructure or political/campaign infrastructure used in the 2018 midterm elections for the United States Congress," the statement read. The joint report examined any potential foreign interference with election systems, as well as with candidates and campaigns. The statement said the classified report was based off an earlier assessment on potential election interference from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.  And the departments said efforts to secure the 2020 elections "are already underway." Read more here.   THEIR BOTTOM LINES: Facebook, Amazon and Google are racking up record profits following a year marked by public controversies over their privacy and business practices. The strong bottom lines have sparked frustration among lawmakers and tech industry critics, who say the numbers drive home the need for tougher federal regulation to rein in web giants. They worry the companies have little incentive to change their business models or policies on their own. Lina Khan, a senior fellow with anti-monopoly think tank Open Markets Institute, told The Hill that the record profits show "bad publicity is not turning consumers away." "They're not the kinds of services where you can expect individuals to boycott or to take their consumer business elsewhere," she said. Facebook last week announced $16.9 billion in revenue for the final quarter of 2018 and $55.8 billion for the year, a 37 percent increase from 2017. Amazon also reported record profits for a third consecutive quarter, generating $3 billion in net income. Amazon's income is up 66 percent from 2017. And Alphabet, Google's parent company, reported $39.3 billion in revenue for the fourth quarter of 2018, marking a 15 percent jump from the previous quarter and 22 percent from the same quarter in 2017. Alphabet's net income for the final quarter of 2018 was $8.9 billion.  The profitable numbers pose a challenge for consumer advocates and lawmakers, who have watched the companies, in particular Facebook, weather storm after storm. We break it down here.   DEMS WANT FACETIME WITH COOK: Top House Democrats are demanding answers from Apple CEO Tim Cook after a bug in the company's FaceTime program allowed users to listen in on other devices even if their call hadn't been accepted. Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), who leads the panel's consumer protection subcommittee, wrote to Cook on Tuesday expressing concern about the vulnerability that Apple says it fixed last week. "As such, we are writing to better understand when Apple first learned of this security flaw, the extent to which the flaw has compromised consumers' privacy, and whether there are other undisclosed bugs that currently exist and have not been addressed," the two Democrats wrote. The flaw was discovered by a 14-year-old in Arizona on January 19, according to reports. More than a week later, Apple disabled the FaceTime Group feature where the bug was present and announced a fix on February 1. Apple did not immediately respond when contacted by The Hill for comment. Read more here.   MOVEMENT IN MYANMAR: Facebook announced Tuesday that it has banned four armed insurgent groups in Myanmar, the country where the United Nations (UN) says Facebook played a "determining role" in inciting the genocide of tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims.   The social media giant has sought to remove violent actors and identify incendiary content for months, after reports indicated Myanmar's military officials stoked hatred and fear on the platform as the military engaged in a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the persecuted Muslim minority.   Facebook announced that it was removing four "dangerous" organizations – Arakan Army, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, Kachin Independence Army and the Ta'ang National Liberation Army – in its latest effort to weed out those that seek to use the platform to "spread hate, incite violence or fuel tension on the ground," the company wrote in a blog post. The groups are four of the many ethnic armed groups in Myanmar, and together, they have been blamed for dozens of deaths and the displacement of thousands. An independent report commissioned by Facebook found that hateful posts on Facebook, often based on misinformation, led directly to stoking violence on the ground. The report, from Business for Social Responsibility, found that Facebook was "a means for those seeking to spread hate and cause harm." "Over the past year, we have repeatedly taken action against violent actors and bad content on Facebook in Myanmar," Facebook wrote on Tuesday. "The ethnic violence happening in Myanmar is horrific and we don't want our services to be used to spread hate, incite violence or fuel tension on the ground."  Its strategy includes removing fake accounts, banning violent actors, building more effective tools to weed out dangerous posts before users see them, and increasing its team of Burmese language content translators. More on Facebook's action here.   WHAT IF: A report published by a think tank Tuesday is urging private companies and the U.S. government to work closer together to help prevent the potential fallout from a major cyberattack. The Foundation for Defense of Democracies and consultant firm The Chertoff Group hosted a table-top exercise in October to walk through what may happen in the event of a major cyberattack that hit several critical U.S. functions like the power grid at once. "The most important finding from the discussion is that unless government and private sector decision makers begin developing [cyber-enabled economic warfare] specific procedures and trust now, the United States will find itself flat-footed during a major cyber event," the report states. Among those who attended the exercise were former government officials and leaders from private companies that could be impacted in the case of such an attack, like utilities. The report said some of the issues that could arise in the case of a major cyberattack include how much information that the private companies can share with the U.S. government without putting their clients or trade secrets at risk, and individuals in the private sector being unable to access classified information necessary to resolving the scenario. And it noted that while the U.S. has resources on hand for other emergency situations like natural disasters, it's unclear if they would be accessible during a major cyber incident.  Read more here.   PAYBACK TIME: Tech giant Apple has reportedly reached a deal with French authorities to pay back about $571 million the country said it owed in undeclared back taxes. Reuters reports that Apple France confirmed the agreement struck with French officials on Tuesday, while not confirming the final price tag. French media, Reuters reports, estimated the fine to be around 500 million euros. "As a multinational company, Apple is regularly audited by fiscal authorities around the world," Apple France said, according to Reuters. "The French tax administration recently concluded a multi-year audit on the company's French accounts, and those details will be published in our public accounts." TechCrunch reported last month that France plans to begin taxing tech companies that report profits in foreign countries based off of revenue generated in France. Other European countries are reportedly expected to follow suit. More on Apple's tax bill here.   NO LONGER "FACE" BOOK: Facebook apologized to a Geneva, Switzerland, museum after a post featuring nude statues in an exhibit was censored. "We recently created space in our advertising policies to allow museums to more easily promote their exhibits and continue to improve on how we enforce this policy," a spokesperson from Facebook told The Hill Tuesday. "The ad was inadvertently rejected, has since been overturned, and we have apologized to the museum," Facebook said. The Museum of Art and History tweeted Friday that it had tried to post pictures of two statues from its "Caesar and the Rhone" exhibit as an ad, but that Facebook had "prevented us from it, because of their nudity." "Maybe it's time that this platform changes its policy for museums and cultural institutions?" it added. On the social media giant's community standards the company says it also allows "photographs of paintings, sculptures, and other art that depicts nude figures." Read more here.   AN OP-ED TO CHEW ON: How technology could help combat climate change.   A LIGHTER CLICK: NYT opinion holds no punches in this savage "birthday video" for Facebook.   NOTABLE LINKS FROM AROUND THE WEB: "Down the rabbit hole I go": How a young woman followed two hackers' lies to her death. (BuzzFeed News) The rise of the robot reporter. (The New York Times) Google's new Chrome Extension automatically checks your passwords are still secure. (The Verge) 230 new emojis in final list for 2019. (Emojipedia) Here's how to delete messages you regret sending on Facebook Messenger, just like Mark Zuckerberg. (CNBC) Your February horoscope is here––we built an AI astrologer to predict your future. (Gizmodo)         Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up for Technology Newsletters     Forward Technology Newsletters       Privacy Policy  |  Manage Subscriptions  |  Unsubscribe  |  Email to a friend  |  Sign Up for Other Newsletters   The Hill 1625 K Street, NW 9th Floor, Washington DC 20006 ©2019 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc.

Overnight Energy: Exxon plans $10B natural gas export terminal | Senate panel advances Wheeler's EPA nomination | Climate change back on the front burner in Congress

View in your browser     EXXON PLANS $10 BILLION NATURAL GAS EXPORT TERMINAL: Exxon Mobil Corp. made a final decision Tuesday with Qatar Petroleum to build a $10 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) export project on Texas's Gulf of Mexico coast. Energy Secretary Rick Perry joined representatives of Exxon and Qatar Petroleum, the country's state-owned oil company, to sign the deal Tuesday. The project would greatly expand the existing Golden Pass LNG terminal which was opened in 2010 on the Sabine Pass to import gas. The expanded terminal would have the capacity to produce about 16 million tons of LNG per year, chilling gas to -260 degrees Fahrenheit to increase its density and load it onto tankers for shipping around the world. Construction is due to take five years and employ about 9,000 construction workers. "Golden Pass will provide an increased, reliable, long-term supply of liquefied natural gas to global gas markets, stimulate local growth and create thousands of jobs," Darren Woods, Exxon's CEO, said in a statement. "The extensive experience of ExxonMobil and Qatar Petroleum provides the expertise, resources and financial strength needed to construct and operate an integrated liquefaction and export facility in the United States." Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, Qatar's minister of state for energy affairs, joined Woods to sign the deal. "The development of the Golden Pass LNG export facility enhances the depth and flexibility of our global LNG supply portfolio, and reinforces the position of the U.S. as a key contributor to meeting the world's growing demand for LNG," he said in a statement. More on the deal here.   Happy SOTU Tuesday! Welcome to Overnight Energy, The Hill's roundup of the latest energy and environment news. Check back at TheHill.com tonight for our live coverage of President Trump's State of the Union.   Please send tips and comments to Timothy Cama, tcama@thehill.com, and Miranda Green, mgreen@thehill.com. Follow us on Twitter: @Timothy_Cama, @mirandacgreen, @thehill. CLICK HERE to subscribe to our newsletter.   SENATE PANEL ADVANCES WHEELER'S NOMINATION FOR EPA CHIEF: A Senate committee on Tuesday voted along party lines to advance President Trump's nomination of Andrew Wheeler, a former lobbyist for a coal company and other energy interests, to lead the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee voted 11-10 to approve Wheeler and send him to the full Senate for consideration at the panel's meeting. All Republicans voted for Wheeler and all Democrats voted "no," including announced or potential 2020 candidates Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who caucuses with Democratic senators. Wheeler has been the acting administrator at the EPA since July, when former administrator Scott Pruitt stepped down under the pressure of numerous ethics and spending scandals. The Senate confirmed Wheeler in April 2018 to be deputy administrator The GOP side: Republicans have cheered Wheeler's continuation of Pruitt's aggressive deregulatory agenda and said his seven months at the EPA's helm show he is capable of leading the agency on an official basis. "Mr. Wheeler's done an outstanding job leading the Environmental Protection Agency these past six months," Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), the committee's chairman, said before the vote. The Dem side: To Democrats, Wheeler's continued leadership at the EPA means more danger and harm to public health, the environment and the climate. Sen. Tom Carper (Del.), the committee's top Democrat, pointed to a letter he wrote to Wheeler shortly after Wheeler took over in July, urging him to turn the agency around and learn lessons from Pruitt's agenda. "It brings me no joy to say that he has not done what I'd hoped he would do in a number of important respects -- not all respects, but a number of important respects," Carper said. "In fact, in many instances, Mr. Wheeler has gone further than his predecessor in his rejection of important measures that are supported by a broad list of environmentalists and industry," he continued, pointing specifically to Wheeler's proposals to rescind the justification for the 2012 Mercury and Air Toxics Standards rule for coal-fired power plants and to freeze auto fuel efficiency standards in 2021 and cancel the planned increases in stringency for the following years. Other nominees: The Environment and Public Works Committee also advanced the nomination of Peter Wright, Trump's nominee to be the EPA's assistant administrator for land and emergency management, which includes the Superfund cleanup program. That vote was also 11-10, along party lines. Read more on Wheeler and Weight here.   In other congressional news....   LANDS PACKAGE CLEARS FIRST HURDLE: The Land and Water Conservation Fund and other lands measures cleared the first hurdle toward passage Tuesday with a 99-1 vote to end debate.   NEW STUDIES PAINT DIRE CONSEQUENCES FROM CLIMATE CHANGE: -Climate change will alter ocean colors by 2100: Climate change could begin to affect the color of the oceans by the end of the century, if not sooner, according to a new study. The change is expected to make the oceans bluer and greener, though the shift in color will be imperceptible to the human eye, according to a study published Monday in Nature Communications. Scientists found that climate change's effects on ocean temperatures will have an effect on the concentration of phytoplankton, small marine organisms that are critical to the cycling of carbon and sensitive to changes in the ocean's temperature. Light reflected off the organisms gives the ocean's surface its colorful patterns. According to the study, climate change will help spur phytoplankton growth in some parts of the ocean, while diminishing their presence elsewhere. The changes will affect more than half of the world's oceans by the end of the year 2100, the study found, though scientists said the change will only be visible via satellite and other technologies. Read more here. -Himalayas could lose third of its glaciers by 2100: The Himalayan range could lose at least a third of its glaciers by the century's end even if most of the world's climate change targets are reached, according to a report released on Monday. If those targets aren't reached, the Hindu Kush Himalaya Assessment found that the region could lose even more, up to two-thirds of its glaciers by 2100 due to rising temperatures in the region. The report also assessed that the region could suffer a temperature increase by up to 8 degrees Fahrenheit if leading climate change targets aren't met. "This is a climate crisis you have not heard of," Philippus Wester, one of the study's lead authors, told The New York Times on Monday. "Impacts on people in the region, already one of the world's most fragile and hazard-prone mountain regions, will range from worsened air pollution to an increase in extreme weather events," he continued. In October, the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned in a report that the world needs to decrease greenhouse gas emissions by 45 percent by 2030 or else the atmosphere could reach 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit by 2040. The panel said in the report that the world would have to transform its economy at a scale that has "no documented historic precedent" to avoid further damage. More on the study here.   ON TAP WEDNESDAY: Two House congressional committees will hold simultaneous hearings on climate change Wednesday. Both the House Natural Resource and Energy and Commerce committees will lead their first hearings of the 116th Congress with the issue of global warming. For the Natural Resources Committee it will be the first time in nine years since a hearing on the topic has been held. The hearing will focus on the effect climate change has on communities. The event will feature Govs. Roy Cooper of North Carolina (D) and Charlie Baker of Massachusetts (R), as well as academics and advocates. Later in the month, every Natural Resources subcommittee is scheduled to also hold their first hearing on the issue of climate. The House Energy and Commerce committee's hearing, hosted by the subcommittee on environment and climate change, is labeled "Time for action" and will explore the environmental and economic repercussions from human-induced climate change. Leaders say it's the first time the panel has broached the issue in six years. The House Appropriations subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies will also hold a hearing Wednesday to discuss spending during the government shutdown. The title of the hearing is "The Power of the Purse: A Review of Agency Spending Restrictions During a Shutdown." Click here for more on how climate change is back on the front burner in Congress after 8 years of Republican rule.   OUTSIDE THE BELTWAY: -Honduran prosecutors to charge another individual in activist's murder, The Seattle Times reports. -Maryland senator proposes panel to create solar blueprint, CBS Baltimore reports. -A hole opens up under Antarctic glacier -- big enough to fit two-thirds of Manhattan, NBC News reports. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Check out stories from Tuesday... -Exxon plans $10 billion Texas natural gas export terminal -Senate panel advances Wheeler's nomination to be EPA chief -Study: Climate change will alter ocean colors by 2100 -Report: Himalayans could lose third of its glaciers by 2100 -Climate change on front burner after 8 years of GOP rule -Magnetic north pole is moving faster than scientists predicted -Ocasio-Cortez starts to fill in details of 'Green New Deal'         Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up for Energy Newsletters     Forward Energy Newsletters       Privacy Policy  |  Manage Subscriptions  |  Unsubscribe  |  Email to a friend  |  Sign Up for Other Newsletters   The Hill 1625 K Street, NW 9th Floor, Washington DC 20006 ©2019 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc.

SearchCap: Local SEO survey, Moz domain authority and GOOG earnings

Featured story

5 takeaways from Google's Q4 2018 earnings for search marketers   Feb 5, 2019 by Ginny Marvin Google executives discussed search experience, campaign, device and performance updates on Monday's earnings call.

From Search Engine Land

Moz upgrades controversial 'domain authority' metric   Feb 5, 2019 by Barry Schwartz The company says it has made a lot of improvements, but SEOs still struggle with this hot-button metric.

SMX Advanced registration is open!   Feb 5, 2019 by Search Engine Land Join us at SMX® Advanced for the search marketing event of the year! Actionable search marketing tactics, professional connections that will advance your career, and community celebrations like the Search Engine Land Awards await you in Seattle June 3-5. The site up and registration is open! Here's a sneak peek at some of the sessions […]

How to keep PPC accounts healthy when using automation   Feb 5, 2019 by Sponsored Content: Optmyzr Machine learning, artificial intelligence, Moore's Law and ongoing automation by the big search engines are accelerating the evolution of PPC. So much so, the role of the PPC pro has to evolve just as rapidly. Optmyzr co-founder Fred Vallaeys recently encapsulated the new roles humans will play in an AI world to help PPC pros […]

Survey: Local SEO an 'artisanal' discipline dominated by small agencies   Feb 4, 2019 by Greg Sterling Roughly 53 percent of firms doing local SEO have 10 or fewer clients.

From Marketing Land

Prepare to say goodbye to Facebook ad set budgets   Feb 5, 2019 by Amy Gesenhues All Facebook campaigns will run with campaign budget optimization as of September.

Digital agencies are hiring, focusing on retention in 2019   Feb 5, 2019 by Robin Kurzer Agencies share what kinds of roles they are hiring for, and how to be strategic about hiring to get the best employees.

Google: Still 'early days' for performance advertising on YouTube   Feb 5, 2019 by Ginny Marvin On its fourth-quarter 2018 earnings call, the company noted YouTube's contributions to revenue growth and cited performance formats and YouTube TV initiatives as areas of future growth.

YouTube lets some advertisers buy masthead ads on CPM basis   Feb 5, 2019 by Amy Gesenhues Previously, YouTube Masthead ads (that run at the top of YouTube's Home feed) were only available on cost-per-day buying terms.

The growth opportunity DTC brands shouldn't neglect   Feb 5, 2019 by Casey Wuestefeld Direct to consumer brands should focus their open web spend on formats and strategies that work within the mid-funnel, which means emphasizing content.

Women love mobile games and brand advertisers should play along   Feb 5, 2019 by Christy Wong-Taylor Rewarded video is a popular format among app developers to drive downloads that could also work well for brand advertisers. Here's how.

Brand equity: Does your email build it up or tear it down?   Feb 5, 2019 by Ryan Phelan Here are three questions to ask yourself before you send your next campaign.

How to keep PPC accounts healthy when using automation   Feb 5, 2019 by Sponsored Content: Optmyzr Machine learning, artificial intelligence, Moore's Law and ongoing automation by the big search engines are accelerating the evolution of PPC. So much so, the role of the PPC pro has to evolve just as rapidly. Optmyzr co-founder Fred Vallaeys recently encapsulated the new roles humans will play in an AI world to help PPC pros […]

Why subscription and consumption services need a different kind of marketing   Feb 4, 2019 by Barry Levine SAP and McKinsey point to the different approaches needed by marketing and advertising for these growing channels.

Facebook introduces household income targeting based on US ZIP code averages   Feb 4, 2019 by Amy Gesenhues The new feature allows advertisers to target ads based on where a user's household income falls percentage-wise (top 5%, top 10%, etc.).

Search News From Around The Web

How to Set Up Metrics to Optimize Your Digital PR Team's Press Coverage, Moz

Google Search Console Drops For Google My Business UTM Usage, Search Engine Roundtable

Meet the teams keeping our corner of the internet safer, Google Blog

Recovering your Organic Traffic after a Web Migration Gone Wrong - #CrawlingMondays 6th Episode, Aleyda Solis

Voices of Search Episode 36: January 2019 SEO Winners and Losers, Search Metrics

Wix Promotes SEO in Super Bowl LIII Ad, But Fails, Bill Hartzer

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