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TechnologyDaily Mobile
California's Tech-Heavy Legislative Session
by Michael Martinez
Lawmakers in the Golden State last week capped their summer legislative session by clearing a series of technology-related bills.
The most sweeping proposal was a comprehensive video-franchising measure. The bill, A.B. 2987, would allow video service providers that want to enter new markets to sidestep local authorities by obtaining statewide franchises. The state's current rules require companies to obtain separate franchises from each locality.
Similar bills have been enacted recently in Indiana, Kansas, New Jersey, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia.
"California has led the way in the evolution of new technology, and with this bill, our state's policy toward contemporary TV and entertainment technology is catching up to the times," Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez said in a statement.
Telephone companies have pushed hard for video-franchising reform at the state and federal levels, arguing that current regulatory systems are anticompetitive and have slowed their entry into the video market. But the California proposal gained steam earlier this year when the state's cable industry advocated it. Cable companies offered their support after provisions were added to let them opt out of their existing agreements with cities and apply for new statewide franchises.
Nunez said the new rules will benefit consumers by introducing more competition to the state's market. "The cable franchising laws [that] have stifled competition are no longer useful," he said. "It's time we brought TV technology into the 21st century."
The League of California Cities remains opposed to the measure and is calling on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to veto it. In a statement, the group expressed concern about provisions affecting public educational and governmental programming. Local governments say they also are worried that the bill does not require video providers to offer service in low-income or rural areas.
Another technology-related bill that won passage last week was S.B. 768, a measure regulating the use of radio-frequency identification chips in ID cards. The bill would make it illegal to extract information from RFID-embedded IDs without users' consent or knowledge. It also would establish security and privacy regulations for public entities that use such ID cards.
"RFID technology is not in and of itself the issue," state Sen. Joe Simitian, the bill's author, said in a statement. "The issue is whether and under what circumstances the government should be allowed to compel its residents to carry technology that broadcasts their most personal information. This bill provides a thoughtful and rational policy framework for making those decisions. I hope the governor agrees."
The bill was passed with the support of privacy advocates such as the American Civil Liberties Union, Electronic Frontier Foundation and Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.
"Without security safeguards, RFID tags can expose you to identity theft, covert tracking and stalking," EFF Senior Staff Attorney Lee Tien said. "This bill is a good first step toward ensuring that critical state-issued IDs don't leak your personal information."
Industry experts and RFID supporters said while the bill is an improvement over an earlier proposal that would have imposed a three-year ban on RFID systems, it is far from satisfactory. A post this week on the Web log RFID Law Blog, which is published by the law firm McKenna, Long and Aldridge, said California systems will be "glued through 2012" to technologies that soon will be outdated.
"It would not be unreasonable to ask questions and get information about the risks and benefits of an emerging technology like RFID," the post said. "But to impose pre-emptive security standards in the hope that it will reduce hypothetical risks, without considering the advantages of RFID over existing systems, seems like putting the cart before the horse."
Massachusetts' Top Cop Targets Xanga
The top law enforcer in Massachusetts last week expanded his crusade against the perils of social-networking sites, adding Xanga to his list of dangerous online spots.
Attorney General Tom Reilly has repeatedly scolded the popular site MySpace this year for being a haven for online sexual predators. Now he has demanded that Xanga, which describes itself as a "Web community company with over 30 million users throughout the world," restructure its policies so that it is safer for children.
In a letter to Xanga CEO John Hiler, Reilly said an investigation he has led over the past several months found that the site lacked sufficient safeguards to protect children from predators and inappropriate content.
"Xanga allows children as young as 13 to register as members of its 'community' and claims that its service is intended for these young users," Reilly said. "Our investigation found, however, that there is an abundance of sexually explicit images, communications and other inappropriate content on the Web site that children just shouldn't be exposed to. Xanga has a responsibility to do what they can to protect our kids online, and we will hold them to it."
Reilly, who is vying to be the Democratic nominee for governor, called on Xanga to raise its minimum age for users from 13 to 18. He also demanded that the site use filtering software to block inappropriate content, delete all existing content in profiles that violates the site's terms of use, and ban violators from the site. Additionally, he urged the site to stop featuring the profiles of minors on its home page, where they are accessible to anyone.
Earlier this year, Reilly demanded that MySpace make similar changes. He also testified at a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing this summer on Internet safety.
Gov. Blagojevich Advocates Mobile Privacy
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich this week urged federal regulators to require cellular telephone providers to offer consumers effective ways to delete their personal information from devices the firms sell.
In a letter to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and FTC Chairwoman Deborah Platt Majoras, Blagojevich said current federal privacy laws fail to address what information may be stored on cell devices once they are discarded.
Trust Digital, a McLean, Va.-based company, announced last week that sensitive information remained on 10 cell phones it bought over the Internet, even after consumers took the necessary steps to delete them.
"More alarming are the examples of the types of information that are all too easily available: information containing a company's plan to win a multimillion-dollar federal contract, an individual's personal medical history, and e-mails about a firm's software license," he said.
The federal agencies charged with regulating cell companies need to intervene to protect consumers, Blagojevich said.
"There is a clear cause for alarm when a person's or company's most sensitive information -- information that was supposed to have been eliminated when their cell phones are reset or discarded -- can easily end up in the wrong hands or used for unlawful purposes," he said.
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