The Senate Intelligence Committee’s draft Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) has support among industry executives we spoke with, while major privacy advocates who opposed the House-passed Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) said they also have significant concerns about CISA. That bill, which Senate Intelligence leaders had been working on since last year, tracks with many aspects of CISPA (HR-624) but has what proponents believe are improved privacy protections (CD April 30 p19).
The Senate Intelligence Committee’s draft Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) has support among industry executives we spoke with, while major privacy advocates who opposed the House-passed Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) said they also have significant concerns about CISA. That bill, which Senate Intelligence leaders had been working on since last year, tracks with many aspects of CISPA (HR-624) but has what proponents believe are improved privacy protections (WID April 30 p11).
The FCC violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Administrative Procedure Act when it created rules last year meant to curb misuse of the Internet Protocol Captioned Telephone Service (IP CTS), Sorenson and subsidiary CaptionCall said, urging a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Tuesday to strike down the rules. The agency contends it acted within the bounds of ADA and APA, though at least two of the three judges said they had concerns.
It’s “disturbing” that lawmakers are asking online advertisers to create a “blacklist of alleged ‘piracy sites’ and refuse to serve ads to those sites,” said Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Staff Attorney Mitch Stoltz in a Thursday evening blog post (http://bit.ly/1jIZoJz). That idea was “an integral part” of the Stop Online Piracy Act, which never passed into law, said Stoltz. He pointed to an April 21 letter sent to the Association of National Advertisers from House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I. (http://bit.ly/RxnmwR). Stoltz took issue particularly with the letter’s call for “a commitment to use actionable and freely updated data, from reliable sources, concerning piracy sites.” The letter also suggests this data should be used for the “negotiation of ad transactions,” which in some cases could “prevent the appearance of ads on online piracy sites.” Stoltz said “it’s downright shocking for them to ask ad networks that compete with one another to agree amongst themselves that they won’t do business with certain websites.” It’s anticompetitive and raises First Amendment concerns, he said. “Certainly, there are ways that the Internet advertising networks can cut off ad revenue to truly bad actors without running afoul of the antitrust laws,” he said. But these suggestions aren’t it, said Stoltz.
The biggest problem Google Fiber may encounter from cities as it tries to expand its high-speed network isn’t government regulation, but Salt Lake City’s snowy, cold weather, according to a sampling of five applications we examined that cities filed for the service. As part of its process of considering 34 cities as candidates to get the much-sought service, the company asked cities to fill out a checklist identifying potential issues and whether they could comply with the streamlined regulatory process the company wants. A top potential issue Salt Lake City’s application identified was that “snow and cold weather could ... cause a contractor to temporarily stop working (up to a few weeks) and wait for better weather.” All 34 cities Google Fiber targeted for the service’s expansion planned to apply (CD May 1 p5).
The biggest problem Google Fiber may encounter from cities as it tries to expand its high-speed network isn’t government regulation, but Salt Lake City’s snowy, cold weather, according to a sampling of five applications we examined that cities filed for the service. As part of its process of considering 34 cities as candidates to get the much-sought service, the company asked cities to fill out a checklist identifying potential issues and whether they could comply with the streamlined regulatory process the company wants. A top potential issue Salt Lake City’s application identified was that “snow and cold weather could ... cause a contractor to temporarily stop working (up to a few weeks) and wait for better weather.” All 34 cities Google Fiber targeted for the service’s expansion planned to apply (WID May 1 p6).
The House Judiciary Committee cleared its revamped version of the USA Freedom Act (HR-3361) Wednesday, 32-0. The manager’s amendment that several key committee lawmakers unveiled (http://1.usa.gov/1mDc447) is a bipartisan “culmination of months of oversight and collaboration between members from both sides of the aisle,” Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said in his opening statement. The legislation, introduced last fall, faced a flurry of amendments during the markup session, some that succeeded and many that failed. The House Intelligence Committee plans a markup of its own competing surveillance revamp bill Thursday in closed session.
The House Judiciary Committee cleared its revamped version of the USA Freedom Act (HR-3361) Wednesday, 32-0. The manager’s amendment that several key committee lawmakers unveiled (http://1.usa.gov/1mDc447) is a bipartisan “culmination of months of oversight and collaboration between members from both sides of the aisle,” Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said in his opening statement. The legislation, introduced last fall, faced a flurry of amendments during the markup session, some that succeeded and many that failed. The House Intelligence Committee plans a markup of its own competing surveillance revamp bill Thursday in closed session.
Health apps are collecting and sharing sensitive information with a variety of third parties, said the FTC’s initial contribution to the limited study of health app data sharing practices. The information shared ranged from a smartphone’s screen size and model type to a phone’s unique device identifier (UDID) to individuals’ names and email addresses to keywords such as “ovulation,” “pregnancy” and “baby,” said Jared Ho, an attorney in the FTC Mobile Technology Unit. Ho presented the findings Wednesday during the commission’s seminar on consumer-generated and controlled health data.
Health apps are collecting and sharing sensitive information with a variety of third parties, said the FTC’s initial contribution to the limited study of health app data sharing practices. The information shared ranged from a smartphone’s screen size and model type to a phone’s unique device identifier (UDID) to individuals’ names and email addresses to keywords such as “ovulation,” “pregnancy” and “baby,” said Jared Ho, an attorney in the FTC Mobile Technology Unit. Ho presented the findings Wednesday during the commission’s seminar on consumer-generated and controlled health data.