Author archives

DOJ Advisory Cmte. Warns About Data Mining and Privacy

According to the New York Times, the Technology and Privacy Advisory Committee advises the DOJ, in an report delivered in March, but just made available (although not yet on the TAPAC website), that due to data mining undertaken by the government in the fight against terrorism, there is the need to establish additional legislative protections …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Government Documents, Privacy

Senate Resolution Calls for Substantial Improvements to THOMAS Website

S. Res. 360 – Expressing the sense of the Senate that legislative information shall be publicly available through the Internet. May 13, 2004: From the statement by co-sponsor Sen. Leahy: “In particular, we are calling on the Library of Congress to improve its public website, called “THOMAS (U.S. Congress on the Internet),” in order to …

Subjects: Congress, Freedom of Information, Internet, Legislation, Libraries

Congress Requests That GAO Investigate E-Voting Technology

David M. Walker, Comptroller General of the United States, received a letter last week signed by a bipartisan group of 13 House members, requesting a formal investigation of e-voting security and reliability. The group stated the issue involved “a critical aspect of American democracy — the ability of Americans to have confidence that the votes …

Subjects: E-Government, Government Documents

FTC Settles Fair Credit Reporting Act Case

From an FTC press release yesterday: “One of the nation’s largest debt-collection firms will pay $1.5 million to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) by reporting inaccurate information about consumer accounts to credit bureaus. The civil penalty against Pennsylvania-based NCO Group, Inc. is the largest civil penalty …

Subjects: Legal Research

Reliability of E-Voting Technology Challenged Again

From the Miami Daily Business Review via law.com, this article adds fuel to the fire that is threatening to undermine public support for e-voting machines in the upcoming national election. After the recent high profile news about California’s decision to decertify Diebold equipment, this article documents serious problems with the iVotronic Touch Screen Electronic Voting …

Subjects: E-Government

VeriSign v. ICANN Over SiteFinder

As a follow-up to my previous postings on ICANN’s dispute with VeriSign’s over SiteFinder, from February, VeriSign Files Lawsuit Against ICANN, this update today from AP, ICANN’s latest challenge tests new Internet services, and the following related information and documents: Verisign Inc. v. Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers et al. (Central Dist. of …

Subjects: Domain Names, Internet

Commentary on the Open Content Movement

The Economics of Open Source Hijacking and Declining Quality of Digital Information Resources: A Case for Copyleft, by Andrea Ciffolilli, Department of Economics, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy. “A copyleft, rather then a simple attribution licence…does not forbid commercial exploitation, but only shields the coherence of the collectively constructed public good and, for instance …

Subjects: Copyright

New Executive Order Establishing Interoperable Health Information Technology

Executive Order 13335 –Incentives for the Use of Health Information Technology and Establishing the Position of the National Health Information Technology Coordinator: “The National Coordinator shall, to the extent permitted by law, develop, maintain, and direct the implementation of a strategic plan to guide the nationwide implementation of interoperable health information technology in both the …

Subjects: E-Government, Privacy