Crime
Business, Consumer Groups Interpret ID-Theft Study Differently
     Business and consumer groups voiced widely different interpretations of an FTC report on identity theft released this week. The Financial Services Roundtable said the study, which found that 9.9 million Americans have been victims of identity theft, showed that Congress needs to pass a bill, H.R. 2622, that would pre-empt state regulation of credit bureaus and add protections against identity theft. "Congress must pass this crucial piece of legislation into law during the upcoming session," said Steve Bartlett, the roundtable's president. But he also said the Senate should "reflect on the chaos of California and consider pre-empting" the entire state financial privacy law enacted Aug. 27. Consumer groups said the survey demonstrated the need to permit states to pass their own measures, pointing to California's new law as an example.

Privacy
New California Privacy Law May Impact Federal Debate
     California's enactment of strong financial privacy regulations could dramatically change the contours of the debate on Capitol Hill about whether to renew portions of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FRCA) that pre-empt state laws. A key business group representing retailers and lenders urged Congress to reject any attempt to incorporate the language of the California law -- which Gov. Gray Davis signed Aug. 27 -- into any the bills currently before Congress. Although the law covers more subjects than the credit-reporting law, it could impact the FCRA debate because it regulates information sharing among affiliates of financial services institutions. Congress pre-empted states from regulating credit bureaus when it passed amendments to FCRA in 1996 that are set to expire on Jan. 1. On the other hand, in 1999, Congress passed financial privacy rules specifically authorizing states to pass stricter laws. The debate seems certain to come to a head as privacy and consumer advocates urge Congress either to adopt strict financial privacy rules or let states like California pass them.

Net Governance
Commerce Seeks Multiyear ICANN Deal Despite Problems
     The Commerce Department is seeking a multiyear extension of its contract with the nonprofit keeper of the Internet domain-name system despite ongoing problems, a senior Commerce official said. "The department believes the [agreement] ... should be extended and amended" with milestones to ensure steady progress by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), Theodore Kassinger, Commerce's general counsel, said in written testimony. "The department intends to negotiate an extension of the [agreement] that is likely to exceed one year while ensuring timely and steady progress is achieved," he added. "An extension of more than one year would allow for the completion and realization of structural and organizational changes that ICANN has initiated in the past year." Speaking before the House Judiciary Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property Subcommittee, Kassinger said the renewal of the understanding is being finalized in negotiations with ICANN. The current agreement expires Sept. 30.

Trade
U.S. Tech Industry's WTO Hopes Flagging But Alive
     Hopes for meaningful gains for the technology industry at next week's World Trade Organization ministerial are diminished but not dashed following the WTO's release of the draft declaration. The WTO has made public the draft text for the Sept. 10-14 meeting in Cancun, Mexico, as well as an accompanying letter to ministers from Carlos Perez del Castillo, chairman of the WTO general council, and Supachai Panitchpakdi, WTO director-general. The draft declaration shows that the United States so far has failed to get acceptance for its proposal to make "permanent and binding" a global moratorium on e-commerce taxes. Instead, the declaration calls for an extension of the moratorium until the next ministerial meeting. The letter makes clear that negotiators are stuck on a number of key issues, including the top tech priority of eliminating tariffs on a wide range of products.

Business
Current Accounting Rules May Shortchange The Public
     The current accounting system is so complex, easily manipulated and potentially inaccurate that corporate financial statements often prove unreliable in helping investors ascertain a clear picture of company health, panelists said at an American Enterprise Institute forum. The generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) that companies must use to tabulate their financial results "alone do not adequately service the market's needs," said Cynthia Glassman, commissioner at the Securities and Exchange Commission. Companies need to provide more accurate, forward-looking information, she said. "We must work on improving the reporting framework while working on improving the underlying culture" that currently permits manipulation of figures for short-term gain, Glassman said. Baruch Lev, an accounting professor at New York University, declared GAAP broken.

Education
Study Shows 20 Percent Growth In Online College Work
     The number of students enrolled in online classes is expected to reach 1.9 million this fall, a 19.8 percent increase in a year, according to a new study. I. Elaine Allen, an associate professor of statistics and entrepreneurship at Babson College in Massachusetts, conducted the survey in conjunction with the Sloan Consortium. They sent an e-mail link to an Internet-based survey to chief academic officers at 3,033 degree-granting colleges and universities. Of the 994 responses, 34.5 percent reported that their schools offer online programs for degrees. That number was higher among public institutions, with more than twice as many public schools as private ones offering online degrees. Allen found that detractors of online learning often are "a very entrenched bunch" who strongly disagree that the Internet is the future in education. "There may be two more groups of educational institutions that have different strategies going forward," she said.

White House
Office Of Management and Budget Sees Personnel Changes
     President Bush announced that he plans to nominate Karen Evans, the Energy Department's chief information officer, as the federal government's technology chief. Evans would fill the spot vacated by Mark Forman on Aug. 15, when he left the White House Office of Management and Budget to join a startup technology company in Silicon Valley. Also this week, DigitalNet Government Solutions announced the appointment of former OMB Chief Technology Officer Norman Lorentz as a senior vice president responsible for the growth and operations of business with the Homeland Security Department and other federal government departments. And Angela Styles, the administration's point person for opening federal jobs to outside competition, is stepping down from her post as federal procurement administrator. Styles will leave the OMB to become a partner at Miller & Chevalier, a Washington law firm that specializes in contract law. She practiced law at the firm before working for the Bush administration.