EU Objections to US Collection of Airline Passenger Data
Via StateWatch: The EU’s Article 29 Data Protection Working Party has issued a strong report on access by the USA to personal data on passengers flying from the EU to the USA.
Quick Website Accessibility Tips
Tips and techniques for making your site accessible, by German website designer Alex Horstmann, offers 14 quick usability tips, along with associated html code as applicable.
CIA Memo on Press and National Security
From OMB Watch: In an unclassified memorandum by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), entitled The Consequences of Permissive Neglect, a senior official on the agencys Foreign Denial and Deception (D&D) Committee, James B. Bruce, called for a targeting of the news media, making them legally accountable for leaked information that they publish.
AltaVista Claims World’s Largest Multimedia Index
From the company’s press release: AltaVista’s expanded multimedia index catalogs more than 540 million comprehensive, high-quality image files and approximately 11 million video and audio files, including popular formats such as MP3 and MPEG.
Federal Appeals Court Rules DOJ Can Withhold Name of 9/11 Detainees
From the Lawyers Committee on Human Rights press release: On June 17, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals granted the government broad authority to withhold the names of hundreds of non-citizens detained in the United States in the post September 11 sweeps. The case, Center for National Security Studies v. DOJ, was on appeal from …
New Bill on DOJ Oversight for FISA
Rep. Joseph M. Hoeffel (PA) introduced a bill to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 to improve the administration and oversight of foreign intelligence surveillance, the Surveillance and Oversight and Disclosure Act of 2003 (SODA). Press release Text of H.R. 2429 (pfd) Law Would Spy on Ashcroft, from Security Focus.
Highly Charged Comments on Copyright Enforcement from Senate Hearing
A tempest is swirling around the prepared and spontaneous statements of Senator Orrin Hatch before the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, “The Dark Side of a Bright Idea: Will Personal and National Security Risks of P2P Networks Compromise the Promise of P2P Networks?” on June 17. See this AP article, Hatch Takes Aim at Illegal Downloading …
New Survey of Employee E-Mail Monitoring
AMA 2003 E-Mail Rules, Policies and Practices Survey (8 pages, pdf), from the American Management Association: “More than half of U.S. companies engage in some form of e-mail monitoring of employees and enforce e-mail policies with discipline or other methods. In fact, 22% have terminated an employee for e-mail infractions. Three-fourths of all organizations have …
FTC Conference on E-Commerce and Data Collection
Information Flows: The Costs and Benefits to Consumers and Businesses of The Collection and Use of Consumer Information, June 18, 2003. Panelists will discuss: The use of consumer information in credit transactions; consumer information in customer relationship management and targeted marketing; methodologies for identifying and measuring the costs and benefits of collecting consumer information; and …
Blogs and Google Ranking
Jerry Lawson’s detailed and informative article on LLRX.com, Web Logs for Lawyers: Lessons from Ernie the Attorney, received a mention in the June 16 MSNBC Weblog Central column.
Website Credibility Focus of Ad Campaign
Consumer WebWatch has launched an ad campaign to spotlight 28 websites whose content complies with the organizaton’s five guidelines for improving Web site credibility, published April, 2002. Sites that are identified as “Praise Worthy” include Adobe.com, CBS MarketWatch.com, and WebMD. See also my article from LLRX, Getting It Right: Verifying Sources on the Net.
Hearing on IP Protection
June 17, 2003 – Legislative hearing on H.R. 2344, the Intellectual Property Protection Restoration Act of 2003 (to restore Federal remedies for infringements of intellectual property by states), Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property. Witness List