A national nonprofit backed by Silicon Valley luminaries is proposing to set up free WiFi in apartment buildings as one solution to an intractable problem — ensuring those who have access to the internet can actually afford it, Axios' Margaret Harding McGill reports.

Why it matters: While there are public and private programs meant to help lower the cost of internet service, such as the Federal Communications Commission's new Emergency Broadband Benefit, barriers remain for millions of U.S. households.

Driving the news: EducationSuperHighway on Thursday unveiled a new campaign and report that includes a proposal to deploy free WiFi networks in low-income apartment buildings.

• In "America's most unconnected communities," 20% to 25% of those without broadband access live in apartment buildings, according to the new report.
• Deploying free WiFi networks in these buildings, using federal funding, could ensure families can afford service and avoid some of the bureaucratic hurdles of enrolling in government programs.

What they're saying: "As the federal government puts up the money, we know that the biggest problem is adoption — getting people to sign up for these subsidy programs," EducationSuperHighway CEO Evan Marwell told Axios.

Yes, but: Building free WiFi networks in apartment buildings will be no small feat.

• EducationSuperHighway said it will work with Oakland, California, to deploy free WiFi in 127 buildings by using the city's new WiFi network, at a cost of less than $100 per month to the building landlords.
• Potential barriers to the broader effort, Marwell said, include working with old buildings and ensuring monthly costs to landlords are affordable.

Catch up quick: EducationSuperHighway launched in 2012 with a mission to ensure American classrooms have access to high-speed internet.

• Now, with $16 million in funding from Laurene Powell Jobs' Emerson Collective, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the Zoom Cares Fund and others, EducationSuperHighway has targeted a new goal — closing the broadband affordability gap.

The big picture: Congress already has dedicated billions to broadband access and affordability programs, including the $3.2 billion Emergency Broadband Benefit that provides a $50 monthly discount for internet service.

• 7 million households have signed up for the FCC's program since it began this summer. EducationSuperHighway estimates that 37 million households are eligible for the program.
• But lack of awareness, lack of trust and difficulty in enrollment are among the barriers to widespread adoption of free and low-cost broadband programs.

Disclosure: Laurene Powell Jobs is an investor in Axios.

A top Apple executive sounded off Wednesday against a proposed European law that would force the company to let iPhone users download software outside of the App Store, also known as "sideloading," Axios' Ashley Gold reports.

Driving the news: Apple software senior vice president Craig Federighi told an audience at Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal, that the EU bill, the Digital Markets Act (DMA), would be dangerous for iPhone users and limit consumer choice.

The big picture: Apple is continuing to double-down on its defense of the tight control it exhibits over the App Store, even as it faces antitrust scrutiny from Congress and regulators and competitors and app makers vocalize their complaints.

What they're saying: "It could open up a Pandora's box of unreviewed malware and software," Federighi said at Web Summit. "Sideloading is a criminal's best friend."

• Federighi said people should have the right to choose Apple's system, which he described as secure and privacy-focused.

Context: The DMA is one of two major pieces of legislation the EU is considering that would fundamentally change how dominant tech companies operate in Europe.

• Bloomberg reported in October that the final DMA passage could take years.

The U.S. Commerce Department on Wednesday added Israeli cyber intelligence companies NSO and Candiru to its blacklist of companies engaging in activities contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the U.S., Axios' Barak Ravid reports.

Why it matters: This is the first time the U.S. government has targeted Israeli cyber companies, which receive their export licenses from the Israeli Ministry of Defense. The designations will limit the activities of the companies in the U.S.

Driving the news: The Commerce Department said its decision was based on evidence that both companies developed and supplied spyware to foreign governments that in turn used it "to maliciously target government officials, journalists, businesspeople, activists, academics, and embassy workers."

The backstory: An international consortium of investigative journalists reported in July that NSO's Pegasus software — designed to track terrorists and criminals — had become a valuable tool for governments to spy on journalists and critics.

• Hungary, India, Mexico, Morocco and Saudi Arabia are among the countries listed in the report as NSO clients.
• Around the same time, Citizen Lab and Microsoft published a report stating that Candiru software was used in a major hack of Windows software.

Synthetic data — the generation of artificial images to train AI and computer vision — will be key to building out a future metaverse, Axios' Bryan Walsh reports.

Why it matters: AI has long been trained on images — including human faces — captured from the real world, but doing so can create serious privacy concerns.

• Using synthetic data instead can help sidestep that issue, though it brings new worries about accuracy and authenticity.

Driving the news:

• Facebook announced on Tuesday that it plans to shut down its decade-old facial recognition system and delete the facial scans of more than a billion users, out of what it said were privacy concerns.
• Australia has ordered Clearview AI to delete images and facial templates belonging to its citizens, saying they were improperly scraped from the internet, BuzzFeed News reports.

Between the lines: Increasingly, privacy concerns will lead companies to move from capturing real faces and other images to train AI as they transition to using synthetically generated data.

• Gartner predicted recently that by 2024, 60% of the data used for the development of AI and analytics projects will be synthetically generated.

The big picture: Avoiding images of real people could address privacy concerns, while also allowing for a more representative set of images.

On Tap

• Uber, Airbnb, Pinterest and Square are among the companies set to report quarterly earnings today.
• Web Summit wraps up in Lisbon, while Microsoft Ignite concludes online.

Trading Places

• Former Google employee activist Meredith Whittaker is joining the Federal Trade Commission's staff as a senior advisor on AI issues.
• Nat Friedman is stepping down as CEO of GitHub, with product chief Thomas Dohmke taking over as chief executive of the Microsoft-owned code repository.
• Denice Ross is joining the White House's office of science and technology policy, becoming the nation's chief data scientist.

ICYMI

• Google is pursuing a big Pentagon cloud computing contract, just a few years after it withdrew from Project Maven amid employee concerns. (New York Times)
• Responding to a new South Korea law, Google said it would let developers offer alternative billing options on its Android app store in the country. (Bloomberg)
• Nintendo has cut its Switch sales forecast, blaming the ongoing chip shortage. (Fox Business)

Ah, fall — that time of year when the deer play in the leaves. (Really!)