 | |
| |
TechnologyDaily Mobile
U.S. Welcomes Hemispheric E-Fellows
by William New with Maureen Sirhal
The Inter-American E-Business Fellowship Program announced by President Bush at the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April begins this week, according to Commerce Department officials.
Twenty-one mid-level managers from Latin America will begin a month-long experience in the United States on Aug. 27. Participants are coming from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay and Peru, the officials said. They will begin their fellowships with a week of training in Washington, then move to companies around the country.
The program seeks to spread knowledge about how businesses use information technology. More than 200 applicants sought the fellowships. U.S. companies hope the participants' companies will become customers after they return to their jobs at home.
The fellows will spend their first two days at Commerce, followed by several days of training with trade associations and others. After that, they scatter to 13 high-tech and manufacturing firms, including IBM and Microsoft (which will have two fellows each). They will return to Washington for a closing event at the end of September.
The project is a pilot fully funded by the government. There are no specific plans for a second round and the fiscal 2002 budget did not request any specific funding for future fellows, but Commerce officials said funds could be found next year anyway.
"It's a great program that helps U.S. companies develop contacts in Latin America," said one Commerce official. "It gives us an opportunity to work with potential trading partners on the use of technology."
A Country That Existed Only On The Internet
A member of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) earlier this week helped nab operators of a fraudulent Web site claiming to be the official site of the non-existent country of "Port of Maria."
The fake country used the Web to link its "offshore bank" to the legitimate Web page of the ICC member financial institution in an effort to lend credibility to the "Port Of Maria" banking services. Fearing that the linkage could mislead consumers to do business with the fake country, the ICC member bank reported the incident to the ICC Commercial Crime Bureau.
"Whenever one of these cases comes to our attention, we make great efforts to alert those who may be affected and offer to remedy the situation," said Jon Merrett, the bureau's assistant director.
The bureau traced the site to an Internet service provider (ISP) in the United States. The ISP closed the site for violating the contract agreement against posting fraudulent information.
"We should not ignore the potential of fraudulent sites to undermine public trust in the banking, finance and insurance companies they claim to be associated with," Merrett said in a statement Monday. "This kind of deception will continue until ISPs start to take more responsibility for policing networks and take steps to guard against hosting Web sites without first checking out the credentials of their customers."
Australia Moves Toward Industry-Led Privacy Code
A top Australian Internet group has launched a set of industry principles for protecting privacy over the Internet in an effort to keep privacy regulation centered on industry needs.
The Internet Industry Association (IIA) last week initiated the first privacy code for the Internet industry in Australia. The code aims to offer the best privacy-protection practices to ISPs, Internet-related businesses or businesses that operate e-commerce sites.
"Our code is intended to position Australian businesses [that] deal with personal information, particularly -- but not only -- over the Internet. ... In the end," said IIA CEO Peter Coroneos, "we support the view that good privacy is good for business. So everyone benefits."
The privacy principles are enforced through a partnership, or "co-regulatory regime," with the Australian government and law enforcement, the first of its kind, according to Coroneos.
The code extends privacy protection beyond the scope of current Australian law in three areas: the protection of children's personal information; the use of direct marketing online; and the collection and disclosure of information from known residents of the European Union.
According to the code, businesses that target children must obtain parental consent before sending information to children. They also must seek consumers' consent before collecting personal information through Web sites or sending Internet users commercial information.
Finally, the IIA code intends to create a "safe harbor" for businesses that must comply with European Union privacy laws. Similar to a system established by the United States, the IIA code would verify that businesses have implemented adequate privacy protections to handle data that flows from the European Union into Australia and on to third parties.
Ireland Scores Top Prize In Net Survey
Ireland's focus on e-government over the past few years is paying off big as some of the country's e-government sites ranked the best in Europe, according to a recent poll conducted by PoliticsOnline and Amsterdam-Summer University.
The Irish Government scored 81 out of a total of 100 points for best overall performance among EU government Web sites in the third Internet Intelligence study. The United Kingdom followed close behind, racking up a score of 79, while Spain finished last, with 33 points. Ireland also scored top prize for best parliamentary and best social ministry Web sites.
OECD Chief To Speak On 'Digital Divide'
The secretary-general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development will speak on the "digital divide" at the Federal Reserve Bank's 25th Annual Economic Symposium on Economic Policy for the Information Economy. The symposium will be held Aug. 31 to Sept. 1 in Jackson Hole, Wyo.
NEW FEATURE
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
