Lawmakers’ ongoing meetings with tech companies should be...
Lawmakers’ ongoing meetings with tech companies should be open to the public and press, argued six organizations promoting government transparency and privacy rights, in a letter to Reps. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Peter Welch, D-Vt., Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1fGEt9R). Blackburn and Welch…
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head the House Privacy Working Group, which is meeting with 10 companies that collect and study user data. The letter acknowledges, “while we are pleased” the House is looking into “the enormously important issue of consumer privacy, there is simply no reason for your task force to hold closed-door” sessions. With the meetings resembling a traditional House hearing -- opening witness statements followed by a question and answer period -- the privacy advocates believe traditional “open meeting and hearings” rules should apply. “Meetings should be held in the open, a public record should be created, and various viewpoints should be heard,” the letter said. The issues being discussed are “common matters of public concern,” it said. Organizations behind the letter include the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the Consumer Federation of America and the Center for Digital Democracy.