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Privacy Fight Comes To Washington
by Sarah Lai Stirland
With several privacy-related bills moving through Congress, and advocates and think tanks still debating the legality of communications surveillance to fight terrorism, the timing is apropos for the annual Computers for Freedom and Privacy conference in Washington this week.
Sponsors of this year's program include America Online and Microsoft, which marks an ongoing departure from the conference's anti-establishment roots -- or perhaps the maturing of the Internet as a popular public medium. Mike Godwin, a former Public Knowledge legal director and Yale University research scientist, and Ari Schwartz, deputy director of the Center for Democracy and Technology, helped direct the program.
"It's a maturing where I don't think the advocates are any less advocates," said Frank Torres, Microsoft's director of consumer affairs, who chaired this year's conference. "If something is of a concern, they don't hesitate to raise it. I think it's a maturing both on their part and on the part of the technology companies. At some point, we're all in this together."
Conference panels will cover subjects such as: technologies to manage digital rights; "fair use" rights under copyright law; the role of U.S. companies like Google and Microsoft in China; the use of technology to help Hurricane Katrina victims; blogs; privacy and wiretapping; "network neutrality" for content on high-speed Internet networks; and radio-frequency identification.
Keynote speakers will include Stewart Baker from the Homeland Security Department, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Lydia Parnes of the FTC.
This year, the Electronic Frontier Foundation plans to hold its Pioneer Awards ceremony on Wednesday at the International Spy Museum. Honorees deemed to have "contributed substantially to the health, growth, accessibility or freedom of computer-based communications" are: Jim Buckmaster and Craig Newmark, the CEO and the founder of the Craigslist online classifieds service; Public Knowledge chief Gigi Sohn; and Jimmy Wales of the Wikipedia Foundation, which is behind the online encyclopedia called Wikipedia.
EFF's Return To The Capital
EFF is re-establishing a Washington office. The group left the nation's capital after its then-lobbyist Jerry Berman quit to found CDT and EFF's board decided that it could not stomach the compromises required to make law.
The group's new Washington office will focus on litigation rather than lobbying. EFF has hired Marcia Hofmann and David Sobel of the Electronic Privacy Information Center to staff the office. Hofmann currently is director of EPIC's open government project, and Sobel is the group's general counsel.
The two will start working at EFF in Washington in August, after leaving their EPIC posts at the end of May. Both Hofmann and Sobel have been the primary forces behind Freedom of Information Act requests and lawsuits against the Bush administration. Those tools were used to discover how anti-terrorism surveillance programs really work.
"They're going to be bringing their open government project to EFF," said Shari Steele, EFF's executive director and president. "They're two incredible attorneys who are going to bring their experience here." It is not clear yet how the work of the ongoing lawsuits will be divided between the two groups.
"[W]e're going to miss David and Marsha. They've done great work," EPIC Executive Director Marc Rotenberg said. "But we have every intention of maintaining a strong presence in the open government field."
Chris Hoofnagle, director and senior counsel for EPIC's West Coast office in San Francisco, also is leaving after six years with the group. And Cedric Laurant, the director of EPIC's international privacy project, finished his job with the group Friday.
Hoofnagle said he is not sure of his plans. His work at EPIC focused on how companies such as ChoicePoint collect public information about individuals, package it and resell it. He also has testified before Congress several times about how companies and the federal government can enact better policies to safeguard citizens' personal information.
Rotenberg said EPIC plans to hire successors but is unsure of the fate of the West Coast office because of funding issues.
Meanwhile, EPIC is adding several members to its board. They include: Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists, who is director of the group's project on government secrecy; and journalist James Bamford, who authored "The Puzzle Palace," the first book on the operations of the National Security Agency.
Google Hires Former Clinton Speechwriter
Google has hired Robert Boorstin, a one-time speechwriter to former President Clinton, to play a role in the Internet company's corporate communications.
Boorstin most recently was the senior vice president for national security and international policy at the Center for American Progress. A statement on his departure from that group mentioned his new assignment with Google. Neither Boorstin, nor Google's corporate spokesman returned calls for comment.
"He has brilliant framing insights about how to frame a debate and discussion," said Steve Clemons, an acquaintance of Boorstin's and executive vice president of the New America Foundation. Clemons first broke the news about Boorstin's departure on his Web log, The Washington Note, last week.
Boorstin helped found the Center for American Progress and, among other things, co-wrote the center's national security strategy, which was dubbed "Integrated Power." The paper offered ideas on how the federal government could better coordinate national security. One idea in particular -- re-examining visa policies that have slowed the inflow of scholars, scientists and students to the United States -- is of interest to the technology industry.
"I liked what Boorstin was trying to do, which was a blunt, and oftentimes a brutish, push to get Democrats to get out of their boxes and to reframe these debates in more aggressive ways." Clemons said.
The ACLU's Celebrity Outreach
While some lobbyists fight over the legislative fine print in Washington, others are fighting to win public opinion in New York, the communications capital of the world.
Allison Walker, celebrity relations liaison for the American Civil Liberties Union in New York, has been busy organizing celebrity-packed events to highlight the policy differences between the ACLU and the Bush administration. The position is new and was created when Walker joined the group in November.
The most recent event was Thursday, when authors and actors read works from scholars and writers who either have been, or are currently banned, from the United States. Actors Liev Schreiber and Debra Winger, and novelists Martin Amis and Russell Banks read works by writers who have been denied entry for their political associations.
ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero also read from a statement by Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss scholar. The administration denied Ramadan entry for a teaching position at the University of Notre Dame on the basis that he was a suspected terrorist. It later retracted the allegation but continues to deny Ramadan entry.
Some writers such as Annie Proulx who could not make the event plan to do readings that the ACLU will make available as digital downloads.
Quote Of The Week
"With his mercurialness and bipolarity comes a brilliance."
-- Steve Clemons of the New America Foundation, referring to Robert Boorstin and his nearly 20-year fight with manic depression. Boorstin has spoken frequently about his efforts to stave off bipolar disorder and has advocated for better treatment.
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