The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the White House, and the wireless industry are all agreed on something: a spectrum crisis is looming.

But Free Press policy coordinator Adam Lynn offered a different take on Friday in an editorial. He says the rhetoric about a "crunch" has arrived a little too early.

"We don’t (yet) have a spectrum crisis; we have an 'AT&T’s Network Sucks' crisis," he writes, arguing that "there is a long bridge to cross from the noticing the popularity of iPhones and Droids to asserting that we have a spectrum crisis."

Lynn argues that as the White House plans auctions to reallocate certain chunks of spectrum, it needs to be mindful that not all of it go to AT&T and Verizon. The wireless market is starting to look like a duopoly, he says. Yet, "there is no evidence that either company is facing, or will face, a mobile data crunch due to a lack of spectrum."

The editorial should make another thing clear: expect a fight, from all sides, at every step of the way, as the government sets policies around the spectrum auctions.

Google apologized to Australians Friday after Privacy Commissioner Karen Curtis found that the search giant violated the country's privacy laws while collecting data through its Street View cars.

"We want to reiterate to Australians that this was a mistake for which we are sincerely sorry. Maintaining people’s trust is crucial to everything we do and we have to earn that trust every single day. We are acutely aware that we failed badly here," wrote Alan Eustace, senior vice president for Engineering & Research on Google's official Australia blog.

Curtis released a statement Friday explaining that despite Google's violation, the law does not allow her to impose any sanctions on the company because she initiated the investigation. Instead Google provided Curtis with written assurances that it would publish an apology, conduct a privacy impact assessment on any future Street View data collection activities and regularly consult with her office about new product launches in Australia.

"Collecting personal information in these circumstances is a very serious matter. Australians should reasonably expect that private communications remain private," Curtis said. "These steps will ensure Google's future products have privacy protections built in rather than bolted on."

Curtis said the commitments from Google will last three years. Eustace said Google will work closely Curtis' office to ensure a similar situation doesn't arise.

"We welcome today’s conclusion of this investigation, and as a result we have committed to working even more closely with them going forward on the privacy implications of our product launches," Eustace wrote.

President Barack Obama again highlighted Recovery Act funds directed at the electric-vehicle industry during a Friday speech on his administration’s efforts to boost the private sector at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Obama used the speech to push back against criticism that his administration is anti-business, and underlined his support for the private sector. For the second day in a row, he specifically highlighted the more than $2 billion in stimulus funds set aside for advanced battery and electric-vehicle development. 

“Because of these grants ... we’re going to go from 2 percent of advanced battery market share to 40 percent just in the next five years,” Obama said. “So it’s a powerful example of how we can generate jobs and promote robust economic growth here in Nevada and all across the country by incentivizing private sector investments.”

Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, the soldier accused of leaking classified data while serving in Iraq, apparently disguised the data as a music CD by Lady Gaga in order to smuggle it past military security, according to a report from the New York Times.

Manning was arrested in May and charged last week on suspicion of downloading classified videos, a PowerPoint presentation and more than 150,000 diplomatic cables onto his personal computer. Manning is also accused of leaking a video of a July 12, 2007, airstrike in Baghdad that claimed the lives of several civilians, including two Reuters employees.

Former hacker Adrian Lamo said Manning confessed to him that he leaked the video to the website Wikileaks, as well as a second classified video of the infamous 2009 Garani airstrike in Afghanistan. Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has said his organization has the video and is working to decrypt it.

Sources told NYT that Manning hummed and lip-synched to songs to make it appear he was using the classified computer’s CD player to listen to music. In reality, he was downloading classified data in violation of the law.

The Pentagon banned the use of thumb drives and other removable storage devices in November 2008 for security reasons, but that ban did not apply to internal CD drives.

Lamo said Manning hid the data CDs inside music albums to avoid detection, citing the Gaga album specifically.

The wireless industry opposed the possibility of government rules on how companies disclose broadband speeds, arguing that fixed broadband providers would have an easier time with such mandates.

CTIA, the wireless association, told the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in a Thursday filing that the “unique characteristics” of wireless service set it apart from fixed broadband, making perfect accuracy an impossibility for mobile providers. 

“Wireless data rates are extremely dynamic,” the filing said. “CTIA’s own speed test across multiple wireless devices and carriers shows that there can be as much as a 97 percent drop in speed, followed by a 1,200 percent increase in a single three-minute period even without movement by the consumer.”

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has officially placed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in charge of protecting civilian federal computer networks.

An OMB memo dated July 6 and signed by OMB Director Peter Orszag and White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt details the new cybersecurity command structure. DHS will make sure civilian agencies are complying with federal cybersecurity policies, while Schmidt's office will take the lead on developing those policies through interagency cooperation. OMB will largely be limited to a budgetary and oversight role.

"Effective immediately, DHS will exercise primary responsibility within the executive branch for the operational aspects of Federal agency cybersecurity" in accordance with the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), the letter states.

The announcement is a major shift in federal cybersecurity policy; previously, OMB was largely responsible for making sure federal agencies comply with cybersecurity programs.

Schmidt didn't address the memo during his Thursday speech at a cybersecurity event in Washington, but he told FederalNewsRadio that the move is unrelated to the cybersecurity bill co-sponsored by Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), and Thomas Carper (D-Del.) that would give DHS greater control over civilian cybersecurity.

"Everybody interprets things differently, which is why we are looking to make sure there is clarity out there on stuff the people need to be doing," Schmidt said. "It is strictly related to the work we are looking to do with the agencies out there."

Radio and television stations announced Thursday that they are going to try to get kids dancing in support of first lady Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" campaign against childhood obesity.

The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) will help member stations coordinate a "flash workout" in which students perform a pre-choreographed "Let's Move" dance routine at schools across the country at a prearranged date and time. The effort follows a resolution at the NAB's June meeting to take on the cause.

Unresolved is which song kids will get down to. Perhaps something the first lady likes? Just because it's delightful, a video of the Obamas dancing on the Ellen DeGeneres Show after the jump, in a side-by-side comparison of President Obama and the first lady.

State Department special adviser and former White House staffer Katie Stanton is leaving government to work for Twitter.

Stanton worked on new media strategies for President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign and served as White House director of citizen participation until moving to Foggy Bottom in December to help the State Department use social media for diplomatic outreach.

Appropriately, Stanton announced her career switch in a Tweet.

“Today’s my last day in govt! Have enjoyed my experiences @whitehouse & @statedept. My next adventure will be @twitter in SF! #CAHereICome!,” Stanton tweeted Friday. Her State Department Twitter account appears to have been deleted at the time of this posting.

Stanton told WaPo she’ll be a vice president for international business strategy and operations starting in August. She previously worked at Google and Yahoo Finance.

In rare public comments, White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt said America’s digital infrastructure is wide open to hackers.