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A Guide to the Patriot Act, Part 1 – Should you be scared of the Patriot Act? proclaims there are villans on both side of the fight over the extension of this act, as well as its proposed progeny, the Victory Act (as the Patriot Act II was quickly dispatched while still in draft). This …
The Center for Democracy and Technology sent a letter on September 4 to Reps. Adam Smith and Howard Berman, House Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property, urging the implementation of privacy protections for personal information entered in the WhoIs domain name database. See also my posting from September 4 on the Hearing on …
From ALA, a pdf version of a three page letter sent to Dept. of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, on August 27, concerning limitations on the public dissemination of “homeland security information” determined to be “sensitive but unclassified.” ALA was one of 75 organizations that signed the letter (including journalists, evironmental groups, scientists and privacy …
The Foundation for Taxpayer & Consumer Rights (FTCR), a non-profit California advocacy group, is publicizing their purchase of personal data, including social security numbers and home addresses, of high ranking Bush administration officials, as a means of demonstrating the need for stronger privacy legislation. However, states such as California, which recently passed the strongest financial …
Here is a link to a draft of the Victory Act (89 pages, pdf), courtesy of Rich Allen, Winthrop Public Library. Rich found the link on PatriotWatch, a blog that has numerous links to related documents, most of which are hosted by advocacy groups. Many thanks Rich! For reference, see my previous related posting, Controversy …
This presentation, RFID and the Public Policy Void, by Beth Givens, founder and director of the non-profit Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, was delivered to the Joint Committee on Preparing California for the 21st Century. Radio frequency ID tags, used by manufacturers and merchants in a wide range of products ranging from automobiles to clothing, are the …
The GPO Access Training Booklet, July 2003, 73 pages in pdf, is available here. GPO Access is one of the premier e-gov resources, providing access to over 2,900 databases, including the daily editions of the Federal Register and the Congressional Record. This manual’s content, which includes a number of screen shots, covers searching strategies, resources …
The California State Senate passed SB 1 yesterday, by a vote of 32 to 6. This bill would enact the California Financial Information Privacy Act, which would require a financial institution, as defined, to provide a specified written form to a consumer relative to the sharing of the consumer’s nonpublic personal information. See also, Lawmakers …
A CIPA Toolkit – Answers to the most frequently asked questions about the Supreme Court’s June ruling that upheld the filtering requirement in the Children’s Internet Protection Act. (reg. req’d)
A User’s Guide to the Stored Communications Act – And a Legislator’s Guide to Amending It, by Orin S. Kerr, George Washington University Law School: Abstract: Americans care deeply about their Internet privacy. But if they want to know how federal law protects the privacy of their stored Internet communications, they’ll quickly learn that it’s …
Rep. Mary Bono introduced H.R. 2929, the Safeguard Against Privacy Invasions Act (SPI), to protect users of the Internet from unknowing transmission of their personally identifiable information through spyware programs. Rep. Bono’s press release. “The bill grants the Federal Trade Commission regulatory authority over the SPI Act, and imposes civil penalties for those who do …
From the Center for Democracy and Technology: Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) is introducing legislation (S. 1484) requiring all government agencies that use commercial data for law enforcement and intelligence purposes to report to Congress about their activities and the potential privacy implications of those programs. Citizens’ Protection in Federal Databases Act (pdf), to require a …
