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Editor's note: A reminder that Technology Daily publishes its final editions this Thursday, Jan. 31. See below for further information.
Privacy
Candidates' Aides Ponder Privacy In High-Tech Era
by Andrew Noyes
Federal enforcement of privacy misuses in the high-tech age have "been pretty lax" and there is a "compelling need for a revisiting of how we approach privacy," a campaign adviser for Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama said Wednesday.
Julius Genachowski, a venture capitalist and longtime confidant of the Illinois senator, told the Congressional Internet Caucus' annual summit that "privacy is one of those areas where there's tremendous frustration." That irritation has been expressed on Capitol Hill through a flurry of data-security bills in recent years.
"We're in a very different world," Genachowski said. "We can't put the genie of personal information back in the bottle." The problem, spurred by a number of well-publicized data breaches, has arisen because sensitive consumer data is on the Internet voluntarily and involuntarily, and is being collected by the public and private sector, he said.
Genachowski called for a greater focus on "putting appropriate regulations on the use of information in the hands of companies and the government." Technology can help with audits of what data is being collected by whom and how that information is being safeguarded, he said.
"The next administration will have to take a fresh look at the enforcement budgets of the FTC and other agencies that have privacy-related" missions, Genachowski said. Consumers could benefit from "a small number of well-handled enforcement actions of clearly written rules," he said, affirming Obama's backing of baseline privacy legislation.
Doug Holtz-Eakin, the policy director for Republican presidential candidate John McCain, said his boss "has always believed this is not a function of the government dictating rules on privacy." Self-regulation and establishing best practices are part of the solution, he said.
Genachowski and Holtz-Eakin appeared alongside officials for Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton and Republican Rudy Giuliani, who is expected to quit the presidential race Wednesday. Genachowski and Holtz-Eakin shared their candidates' views on a range of technology issues, including competition; immigration; and government funding and taxation of research and development.
Center for American Progress fellow Thomas Kalil, who recently released a paper outlining what the next president should do to empower U.S. innovation, said "2007 was not a great year for science and technology." "I believe we can and must do better than this," he said, speaking unofficially for Clinton.
AOL Chief Privacy Officer Jules Polonetsky, who has advised Giuliani, added that the complex threat posed by the Internet and data insecurity "isn't science fiction anymore. ... We're living in an era of cyber warfare."
Holtz-Eakin, also a fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said McCain has "tremendous respect for market-driven innovation." Ensuring American competitiveness has become a cornerstone of McCain's bid for the White House, he said.
"He's committed, unlike any other candidate, to providing access to global markets" and realizes that 95 percent of the world's consumers are outside of U.S. borders. McCain also has opposed earmarking R&D so funding decisions can be made based on "sound science," and he has supported efforts to make the R&D tax credit permanent, Holtz-Eakin said.
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Privacy
FTC Aims To Protect Data On Social Networks
by Andrew Noyes
The phrase "social-networking privacy" is not an oxymoron despite widespread concerns about protecting the personal information of users on popular online communities like Facebook and MySpace, FTC Commissioner Jonathan Leibowitz said Wednesday.
While specific high-profile cases of privacy concerns have arisen in recent months, he said at the Congressional Internet Caucus' annual policy summit that his agency is working hard to enforce laws that protect consumers in the fast-moving virtual world.
The most recent example was a same-day announcement by the FTC that it settled a case against Imbee.com, a social-networking site for kids and "tweens" that allegedly violated federal law by collecting personal data about young users without parental notification and consent.
The settlement, which included a $130,000 civil fine, bars Imbee from future violations of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act -- a statute that took effect in 2000 that applies to the electronic collection of data about people younger than 13.
The deal requires Imbee, which promoted itself as "safer than other social-networking sites," to delete all personal data the firm unlawfully collected and maintained. According to the FTC, the site allowed more than 10,500 children to create accounts by submitting their names, birthdates, e-mail addresses and other information.
"This was not the most egregious violation we've seen," Leibowitz said, because the information was never improperly used or shared. The FTC fined the adware firm Zango $3 million in 2006 for illegally monitoring and disrupting computer users' Internet-surfing habits, he added.
Leibowitz also noted the recent controversy over Facebook's "Beacon" advertising platform, which was launched without giving users a way to turn it off. The application, which has since been revised, allows the site's partners to track Facebook members' visits to their Web sites, as well as their online purchases.
While Leibowitz did not seem entirely satisfied by Facebook's fix, he said Beacon "is a lot better than it was." He added that a "true opt-in where consumers choose is always preferable." He urged similar sites to use a "common-sense test" to improve privacy going forward.
Industry pressure on social networks to employ targeted advertising tactics also is on Leibowitz' radar. On the adware front, he said "that has led many companies to cross the line. I hope [social networks] understand that if there are too many missteps on the path to monetizing users, consumers might get fed up and go somewhere else."
An afternoon session built on Leibowitz' talk. Panelists included Danah Boyd, a social-networking researcher at the University of California at Berkley; Santa Clara University law professor Eric Goldman; Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Chris Kelly; and George Washington University law professor Daniel Solove.
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Crime
N.Y. Officials Offer Plan Against Online Predators
by Michael Martinez
Lawmakers and law enforcers in New York have floated an aggressive proposal to protect children from sexual predators online.
State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo unveiled legislation Tuesday that would require registered sex offenders to give the state their e-mail addresses, chat-room and instant-messaging screen names, and other information that could be used to identify them. The measure also would make that data available to social networks and other online hotspots where predators target minors anonymously.
The proposal would ban people convicted of serious enough crimes from accessing social networks and online pornography. Serious offenders would have to agree to abstain from using those types of online applications as conditions of their parole.
Bruno, a Republican, said at a press conference in Albany that he believes the proposal is the first of its kind. He said it would give law enforcers and parents stronger tools to ensure that children are not victimized on the Web.
"I believe it's the most comprehensive in the whole country and the first time in the whole country that something like this will become law," Bruno said.
The measure already has won the approval of the popular social networks Facebook and MySpace, which boast hundreds of millions of users between them. Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Chris Kelly and MySpace Chief Security Officer Hemanshu Nigam both said in statements that the New York measure would be a sound compliment to the applications they already have on their sites to protect children.
It has been a busy month on the child-protection front for state law enforcers. MySpace, along with the attorneys general from nearly every state, released a set of online safety guidelines that it promised to soon implement.
Cuomo, a Democrat, was one of the prosecutors who endorsed MySpace's plan. He threatened to sue Facebook last fall after investigators from his office identified what they believed were significant defects in the network's safety controls. He subpoenaed Facebook after undercover officers created fake profiles on the network and allegedly were sent sexual messages.
Cuomo said Tuesday that existing laws have not kept pace with people who are using the Internet to exploit children. He also noted that recent attempts to bolster penalties against sex offenders have not gone far enough.
Silver said in prepared remarks that the proposed enforcement mechanism is reasonable and appropriate. He said it will be a priority in his chamber to ensure the proposal's passage.
"It is incumbent upon all of us -- parents, schools, libraries, Internet service providers and government -- to work together and to clear the Internet of the highwaymen who threaten public safety," Silver said.
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Politics
Techies Lament Tom Davis' Decision To Leave House
by Heather Greenfield
Technology industry advocates in Washington are expressing disappointment at Wednesday's announcement that Rep. Tom Davis will not seek re-election this year.
The Virginian is the top Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and has been a leading voice on tech issues. He led government efforts toward better data security by issuing an annual report card on federal agencies. Davis also helped pass legislation that impacted the tech industry, covering topics such as federal acquisition and e-government, as well as the REAL ID Act that requires standardized driver's licenses.
Davis represented northern Virginia's tech corridor, which includes most of Fairfax County, for more than a dozen years. "It's a loss for the tech industry," AeA lobbyist John Palafoutas said of Davis' decision to retire. He added that there are not many lawmakers who have that much clout and also understand tech policy issues so well.
"Tom Davis has been the ultimate champion for technology in Congress, particularly when it comes to bringing private-sector innovation to public service," Information Technology Association of America CEO Phil Bond said. "When other members needed to get smart on IT, they often called Tom."
Bond also credited Davis with helping "tear down the wall between the federal government and commercial technologies. We wish him the best and challenge his colleagues to pick up the mantles of technology, innovation and flexible government."
As for what's next, Davis said he is not sure but did not rule out future public service. After 14 years in the House and 15 years on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, however, he said it is time for a sabbatical from public office.
Davis' wife, former state Sen. Jeannemarie Devolites Davis, lost her re-election bid in November, and Davis said he realized they had not had a free weekend together in three years.
Davis recently considered running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Republican John Warner but decided against it after the Virginia Republican Party opted for a caucus instead of a primary election to choose the GOP candidate. Former Republican Gov. James Gilmore was likely to be chosen by conservative party members over Davis, a moderate Republican.
Davis said he will serve the remainder of his term and "be active in Republican causes" but will not run for office in 2008.
"I think I have left Northern Virginia and the capital region better than I found it," Davis said in a statement. "Meanwhile, there is much left to accomplish during the remainder of my term, and I plan to work harder than ever this year across party lines for my district, the region and America."
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Antitrust
Experts: Microsoft Ruling Could Have Ramifications
by Andrew Noyes
A judge's decision late Tuesday to extend the federal government's oversight of Microsoft until 2009 may seem nominal after the software company's landmark antitrust settlement six years ago, but legal experts said the ruling could have more lasting ramifications.
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said that her action "should not be viewed as a sanction against Microsoft" and that it was based on delays by the company in filing technical documents related to the licensing of its software.
New York and California led eight other states in urging Kollar-Kotelly last year to preserve government supervision until 2012. The Justice Department did not side with the states and told the court that the provisions should be allowed to expire.
Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith said his company will "continue to comply with the consent decree" and was gratified that the court "recognized our extensive efforts to work cooperatively with the large number of government agencies involved."
The Association for Competitive Technology's Jonathan Zuck said he is disappointed with the decision, given that Microsoft's rivals already have tried to use the technical committee established as part of the settlement "to slow down innovation."
Google lobbied Kollar-Kotelly last summer, arguing that the deal struck between regulators and Microsoft concerning the new Windows Vista computer operating system is anti-competitive because it discourages customers from using non-Microsoft search software.
Vista was built to comply with the settlement and Microsoft "will continue to adhere to the decree's requirements," Smith said in a statement. Zuck, whose group is funded by Microsoft, said he hopes the technical panel "doesn't become the focus of abuse by competitors looking to skew the marketplace in the future."
Kollar-Kotelly's decision may not have been a sanction "but it certainly was a rebuke -- of Microsoft's foot-dragging in complying with the disclosure provisions of the decree," Howard University law professor Andrew Gavil said.
He said the ruling was a reprimand for the firm's arguments as to why it should be freed from other provisions of the decree, "which were designed to work with the disclosure components as an integrated whole."
William Page, who co-authored a recent book on the Microsoft case, said the ruling will impose some additional costs but "probably won't matter much" because the company already agreed to extend portions of the decree that require the firm to license protocols.
The extension could embolden European regulators' antitrust actions, University of Baltimore law professor Robert Lande said. The European Union ordered the release of technical material, and Microsoft's tardiness led to sanctions there.
While the U.S. case is technically different and not admissible as evidence in Europe, Kollar-Kotelly's verdict will reassure the European Union "that Microsoft has not changed its decade-long pattern of delay," Lande said. "It will validate the Europeans for suing Microsoft in the first place."
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Environment
Industry Standards May Help Curb IT Energy Use
by Aliya Sternstein
Better industry standards would help curb information technology's drain on the nation's energy infrastructure, Google energy strategist Bill Weihl said at a forum on Wednesday.
"IT equipment does use energy. There is a lot of room for making things much more efficient," he said at the Congressional Internet Caucus' "State of the Net" conference. But "we need to be careful not to get hysterical about the scope of the problem."
IT experts representing diverse interests joined Weihl in a discussion of whether the IT industry is a net contributor or a net detractor to global energy consumption.
Eric Masanet, a Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientist who studies the overall environmental impact of electronics, cautioned the public to be skeptical of numbers bandied about by advocates on both sides of the issue.
He noted, for example, that energy savings from telework depend on the types of cars people drive and other factors, such as whether teleworkers are using more air-conditioning and electricity in their homes than they would use in a shared, energy-efficient office.
According to numbers offered Wednesday by TIAX's Kurt Roth, IT infrastructure and personal devices combined account for less than 5 percent of the nation's energy consumption. "The really big unknown in terms of energy impact of the Internet" is the effect "throughout the economy," he said.
Products that never fully power down, or are in standby mode, waste considerable energy, noted moderator Roger Cochetti, the U.S. policy director for the Computing Technology Industry Association. At last count, there were 20 such devices in his typical suburban home, he said.
Douglas Johnson, the senior director of tech policy for the Consumer Electronics Association, supports industry standards and voluntary standards like the federal government's Energy Star program. He said the electronics sector is looking at making always-on set-top television boxes more efficient. He noted the importance, and difficulty, of striking the right balance between efficiency and consumer demand.
Market pressures likely will not drive energy efficiency in the IT sector because the typical consumer has no financial incentive to ask for it, many panelists said.
The natural pressure in the market is to drive down cost, which often means producing inefficient products, Weihl said. But to its credit, the industry has made strides in banding together to improve energy-efficiency standards, he said.
Masanet added that public policy will play a critical role in changing consumer behavior, pointing to the federal government's recent endorsement of "green computer" certifications for all government purchases.
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Environment
Techies Embrace 'Green' Issues, Try To Affect Rules
by Heather Greenfield
Whether it is easy being green is debatable, but more technology companies see going green as inevitable and they are trying to get ahead of the trend -- and the regulations.
AeA Chief Executive Chris Hansen told Technology Daily that his trade association is adding environmental issues, particularly a focus on electronic waste, to its portfolio. He is close to hiring an environmental policy coordinator to provide policy support to state lobbying operations.
More states are weighing environmental legislation on everything from how electronic products can be recycled to what materials can be used in products. "This industry wants to make sure whatever plan a state comes up with is logical and doable," Hansen said.
AeA already has been handling environmental issues internationally, but since February 2005, dozens of states have enacted e-waste rules or are eyeing them.
AeA will join the Consumer Electronics Association, which along with the former Electronic Industries Alliance focused on e-waste early. The five-person environmental staff from EIA was acquired by the Information Technology Industry Council in a move last fall to add both an environmental portfolio and expand the group's state operations.
Ten states already have e-waste laws, and 20 others have offered proposals. Rick Goss, who now heads the environmental group at ITI, said the scramble to expand lobbying to cover environmental and state issues is "a recognition that the states are really the ones who are driving the bus domestically."
He said New York City along with Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Vermont and Wisconsin are likely to move e-recycling bills this year.
Goss said a patchwork of different state laws requiring different recycling rules -- or worse, manufacturing regulations -- could be a nightmare. Companies would rather see a federal rule, but he said it is clear the House and Senate have no "appetite to pre-empt the existing 10 state laws."
Sudhakar Kesavan, the CEO of ICF International, spoke about his own company's effort to beat regulations by going carbon-neutral by 2008. He spoke to more than 600 tech executives in McLean, Va., at a breakfast meeting that was delayed by a power outage.
Kesavan advised tech executives to calculate their own carbon footprints, offering numbers from his own company that showed electric utilities far ahead of all other carbon-emitting activities, followed by employee travel. He said his firm will be carbon-neutral by April by making ICF's 23 offices more energy-efficient and buying carbon-credit offsets, which cost him $60,650 this year.
Google, Mosaic, Salesforce.com and Yahoo are among the companies that announced carbon-neutral goals last year.
Kesavan advocated adopting carbon offsets ahead of dozens of pending bills on Capitol Hill, saying it helped his company impress future employees and stockholders. He acknowledged that some people are still skeptical about global warming but said "the weight of the scientific evidence is such that something must be done."
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Intellectual Property
Participants Cite Progress At Copyright Discussion
by Andrew Noyes
Congressional aides involved in a closed-door meeting with copyright stakeholders who are divided over intellectual property enforcement characterized a Friday event about the legislation as an informative and positive step forward.
Book and music publishers; consumer electronics and software sector officials; proponents of "fair use" of copyrighted content; and representatives from the graphic design worlds took part in the forum, which was organized by the Copyright Office and the House Judiciary Committee.
Attendees, who were asked to bring with them practical examples of how the current copyright regime has impacted their industries, wrangled with a section of the bill, H.R. 4279, that would disaggregate parts of a compilation or derivative work and boost damages in infringement cases.
Sweeping away the "one work" rule, "would multiply many fold the penalties that could be assessed against infringers for no apparent reason," warned Will Rodger, a spokesman for the Computer and Communications Industry Association.
Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., and California Democrat Howard Berman, who heads the Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property Subcommittee, turned to interested parties to address "any ambiguities identified in the current law" and possible alternatives to the legislative text, an aide said.
The continuing relevance of the provision's focus on compilations was a key topic of conversation, the official said: "A primary question was whether compilations in the 21st century are different in nature from what was considered when the law was first enacted."
The roundtable, which was not open to the media or public, "accomplished a lot ... in a way that a hearing might not have," the aide said. Conyers and Berman are cognizant that the legislative calendar is filling and time is limited to advance the bill.
Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn said supporters of the rule revision "couldn't name one instance in which they were inadequately compensated by the current regime, and you don't change laws in response to some phantom problem."
When Congress and copyright officials crafted the original law, she said, "they didn't want to put innovators out of business because they infringed. I don't think anybody showed things have changed significantly."
But Mitch Glazier, a lobbyist for the Recording Industry Association of America, said opponents of the section tried to turn what was supposed to be a narrow conversation "into a referendum on the copyright system in general."
"We're talking about one sentence in one section that refers to a specific instance and a specific type of computation of damages," Glazier said. "The way they want to compute damages makes no sense at all."
Lawmakers "wanted to take at least two steps back for the purpose of giving people the process to explain both sides of the issue," the aide said.
It is too early to tell whether the Copyright Office will be asked for formal recommendations on how to proceed.
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Today's Feature:
International Roundup
China soon will be better than the United States at developing basic science and technology and offering products and services that reflect that lead, according to a new study from the Georgia Institute of Technology. But U.S. experts said the conclusions should be taken with a grain of salt.
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E-briefs
Intelligence: Attorney General Michael Mukasey on Wednesday urged the Senate to quickly reauthorize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act as he fended off questions about an interrogation technique known as waterboarding, the destruction of CIA interrogation tapes and U.S. attorney firings. It was his first appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee since his confirmation. Mukasey would not offer an opinion on whether President Bush violated FISA in authorizing anti-terrorism surveillance conducted on U.S. citizens without warrants, but he did recommend that the reauthorization of FISA include a provision granting telecommunications companies retroactive immunity for their involvement in the program. He said a compromise that would substitute the federal government as the defendant in lawsuits against the companies is unacceptable because it leaves "front and center" the conduct of the telecom companies. The Senate's effort to advance FISA legislation is still stalled.
Television: Conflicting surveys about consumer awareness of the digital television transition were issued Wednesday. The watchdog Consumers Union released a survey indicating "major confusion" among citizens about the switch from analog to digital signals on Feb. 17, 2009. The group found that more than 36 percent of TV households were clueless about the shift. It also concluded that 74 percent of consumers familiar with the change have "major misconceptions" about it. But the National Association of Broadcasters found that awareness has grown substantially in the past year to 79 percent of Americans. In June, NAB reported that only 38 percent of citizens knew about the changeover. "As the NAB notes, the fact that more Americans are aware of the upcoming transition is a big step in the right direction," FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said in a statement. "It is equally important, however, as highlighted by Consumers Union, that consumers understand how to be prepared."
E-Government: The Transportation Security Administration started a blog called Evolution of Security on Wednesday to explain and get feedback on the agency's often-controversial policies. TSA Administrator Edmund (Kip) Hawley and other leaders will participate along with several employees. Hawley's initial post said the employee bloggers "aren't responsible for TSA's policies, nor will they have to defend them -- their job is to engage with you straight-up and take it from there." Public comments will be reviewed "to remove the destructive but not touch the critical or cranky." Most of the initial responses were from TSA personnel. One transportation security officer reminded a security manager who wrote on the blog that "we have been trying to get away from the terms 'screener' and 'screening.' It is difficult to get the public and media to think of us as more than mere screeners when our management don't get it."
Civil Liberties: China will take a new step Thursday to tighten control of the Internet with new rules limiting online video-sharing to government-owned companies. But AP reports that regulators, wary of hurting a fast-growing industry, are expected to let private operators bypass the restrictions. The rules are aimed at expanding a Chinese system that tries to block Internet use to spread dissent while promoting it for business and education. Communist leaders are especially anxious about unflattering video, particularly with political content, appearing online ahead of the Beijing Olympics in August. The rules came in an announcement Dec. 29 -- a move possibly driven by urgency about getting controls in place ahead of the Summer Games. In the Middle East, meanwhile, Internet service was disrupted Wednesday after an undersea cable in the Mediterranean was damaged.
Dear Reader:
After nine years of publication, National Journal's Technology Daily bids farewell this Thursday.
In announcing this decision recently, we noted that National Journal Group is moving to increase technology-related coverage throughout all of its publications. In particular, National Journal's CongressDaily -- our twice daily publication for Capitol Hill insiders -- will be adding staff for this purpose.
And, beginning next Monday, Feb. 4, the online edition of CongressDaily will contain a new, continuously updated section that will include stories of interest to the technology sector in one convenient place. This section will also be home to several of the weekly features that have appeared regularly in Technology Daily over the years.
If you are interested in a trial subscription to CongressDaily, please call 800-424-2921 or e-mail us at memberships@nationaljournal.com.
With best regards,
Lou Peck
Editor In Chief
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Editor in Chief -- Louis Peck, 202-739-8481
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