Privacy
FTC Releases Privacy Rules
     The Federal Trade Commission released proposed rules Thursday, implementing the privacy provisions included in financial services legislation enacted late last year, that were much more expansive than expected. The law requires companies conducting financial activities to provide information about the businesses' data privacy practices and allow customers to request that their personal information not be shared with third parties. The FTC's proposed regulations were widely expected to cover check cashing and money-transfer businesses, department stores that issue credit cards, and others engaged in quasi-financial activity. But the rules went much further than expected, possibly covering companies that sell personal financial software or data processing services.

Privacy
EU-US Reach Tentative Deal On Data Privacy
     European Union and U.S. officials said Wednesday that they had reached a "breakthrough" that they hope will lead to a final deal on "safe harbor" privacy principles aimed at providing U.S. companies with protection from the union's data privacy directive. The directive bans the flow of personal data to third countries without adequate privacy protections. EU and U.S. negotiators reached agreement on all but one of a handful of sticking points in the nearly two-year old talks. The one issue still to be worked out concerns the U.S. demand that financial services institutions be automatically covered by the safe harbor. The deal, however, must still be approved by EU commissioners, which an EU official said would not be an easy task.

Exports
EAA hits snags in the Senate
     Supporters of legislation to reauthorize the Export Administration Act spent this week trying to appease a group of four committee chairman who have raised national security concerns about the measure. But the bill's sponsor, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Phil Gramm, R-TX, and other key backers of the bill, S 1712, may be running out of time. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-MS, said Thursday that if supporters do not reach agreement with their critics in time for the measure to go to the floor next week, the Senate is unlikely to take up the issue this year. The critics are demanding that the bill, which establishes a system for decontrolling items that are available on a mass-market scale or from foreign competitors, include a "carve out" that would enable the administration to continue to control items that post a national security risk. Gramm asked officials from the Commerce and Defense Departments to develop "carve-out" language, which a Commerce official said he hoped would be done by Friday.

Trade
Clinton Promises "Full-Court Press" For PNTR
     President Clinton promised this week to make a "full-court press" for gaining congressional approval for granting China permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) as part of the country's entrance into the World Trade Organization. During a speech before business leaders Thursday, Clinton sought to persuade those questioning the WTO agreement reached by China and the United States last fall that they are faced with a "false choice" between the economic benefits of the deal and issues such as China's approach to human rights, democracy, nuclear proliferation and Taiwan. On Wednesday at a hearing on PNTR, Senate Finance Committee Chairman William Roth, R-DE and other senators said passage of PNTR is not a "forgone conclusion" and criticized both the Chinese government and Vice President Al Gore for making passage of the measure more difficult.

On The Hill
FOIA Bill To Be Introduced
     Reps. Tom Davis, R-VA, and James Moran, D-VA, plan to introduce legislation aimed at making it easier for companies to provide information about cyber attacks and security issues. The measure would exempt from the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) critical infrastructure protection information provided voluntarily from non-federal sources. Some companies have expressed concern about providing such information out of fear that proprietary data would be made public under FOIA. But public interest advocates including the Center for Democracy and Technology and Federation of American Scientists, have expressed concern about providing exemptions to a law designed to ensure the government is accountable to the people. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-VT, also has voiced concerns about such legislation, saying government and industry need to take more steps to promote Internet security, but "weakening FOIA and sunshine-in-government laws should not be one of them."

Taxes
Gilmore Sends Proposal To Tax Commission
     Gov. James Gilmore, R-VA, chairman Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce, has indicated he would accept a five-year Internet tax moratorium but remains committed to trying to enact a permanent ban on Internet taxes. Gilmore forwarded a handful of resolutions late last week to the Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce that include his tougher no-Net-tax plan along with his extended tax moratorium compromise. A Gilmore aide the governor is willing to support an extended Internet tax moratorium as an incremental way of reaching a permanent ban on sales and use taxes for goods and services sold online. The congressionally mandated commission is expected to forward its recommendations to Congress in April.

Antitrust
Microsoft Pushes Copyright Defense
     Microsoft and its legal adversaries returned to court Tuesday for final arguments in an apparent signal of their failure to reach a negotiated settlement in the antitrust case against the software giant. Microsoft's lead attorney employed a new defense during the proceeding, saying copyright law should shield the company against allegations that it violated antitrust law. But Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson said that argument was not relevant to the case. Meanwhile, Microsoft critics said they intend to push for some immediate remedies in the likely event that the company is found liable for breaking the law.

On The Hill
Government Should Set Example On Cyber Security, Lawmaker Says
     The leaders of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee say the federal government needs to set a better example in guarding against hackers and Congress should crack down on agencies that don't employ sound security practices. During a press conference this week, committee Chairman Fred Thompson, R-TN, and the panel's ranking Democrat, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-CT, said they plan to hold a hearing next week on government security. The lawmakers have introduced legislation, S. 1993, that would centralize government oversight of information security in the Office of Management and Budget.

Education
Democrats Disagree On Education Technology
     A rift could be brewing between traditional Democrats and New Democrats in the Senate over how best to allocate federal education technology funds as part of efforts to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which the Senate's education committee may take up next week. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-CT, is working with a handful of New Democrats in the Senate on a proposal to eliminate a section of the law that authorizes education technology programs, and instead creating grants targeted toward technology without any specific assurances that the money would be used for the former programs. The plan may be closer in line with Republican members of the committee, which Lieberman does not sit on, than with Democratic members.

Y2K
One Last Chance For Y2K?
     Y2K czar John Koskinen said this week that the leap year rollover may only cause minor headaches. Because there are different ways to determine what constitutes a leap year, some programmers might have forgotten to write code to account for the additional day, which could cause problems for banking and payroll systems or businesses calculating interest if they cannot read Feb. 29. But because most businesses and government agencies already fixed possible leap year glitches while they dealt with other Y2K problems, any snags would be marginal, Koskinen said. Still, the Y2K's Council's Information Coordination Center will begin monitoring the rollover on Monday, although efforts will be significantly scaled down compared to the Jan. 1 date change.

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