California Privacy Bill's Long Reach

A new California law, SB 1386, that takes effect July 1, 2003 (highlighted in my previous posting here), reaches beyond the state of California. According to this SecurityFocus article, the ABA Cybersecurity Task Force and industry groups discussed the ramifications of the law that requires businesses maintaining personal data on California citizens to report security …

Subjects: Legislation, Privacy

Too Much Spam – Reports and Polls Say Yes

A new Harris Interactive poll indicates that 80% of those surveyed dislike spam so much that they would like to see it banned. A new report, from Ferris Research, a San Francisco based market research company, ($1,995 fee) assesses the cost of spam to American corporations in 2003 at more than $10 billion, due to …

Subjects: E-Mail, Internet

Campaign 2002 and the Web

Released today, a new Pew Internet Project report, The Internet and campaign 2002, indicates that there was a growth in the use of websites by Americans seeking news about elections, and candidate information. See also this related article by Marc Glaser, Blogs Go Highbrow and Lowbrow; Net Playing Growing Role in U.S. Elections.

Subjects: E-Government

Medical Advice Via E-Mail and Net

Today’s WSJ has an article on the nascent service of conducting limited medical consultations via the web and e-mail. In a previous post I noted that there are now unified guidelines for physician-patient e-mail. Services such as Med Help International, MayoClinic.com, and Askadoctor.com are all fee-based, and are often used as a interim step between …

Subjects: E-Mail

108th Congress and Tech Issues

The 108th Congress commenced today with an agenda of technolgy related issues that mirrors those of the 107th Congress. Legislation on privacy, digital rights management, spam, internet taxation and net gambling will continue to generate controversy, heavy lobbying from the entertainment industry, and inevitably consumer dissatisfaction as many of these issues remain unresolved.

Subjects: Congress

New Digital Science Library Under Development

The USA Today reported about the efforts currently underway by hundreds of scientists nationwide on the National Science Digital Library, whose goal is to be a “comprehensive source for science, technology, engineering and mathematics education.” The project is funded by the National Science Foundation.

Subjects: Internet

ABA and Internet Jurisdiction

The ABA Cyberspace Law Committee announced the establishment of a new sub-committee, Jurisdiction II, chaired by Michael Geist, that “will work on developing the global jurisdiction survey, and its methodology, to examine the practical effects of Internet jurisdiction issues on companies worldwide.” See this link and scroll down the page where you will find the …

Subjects: Internet