WASHINGTON, April 11, 2018 – Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrived at the Rayburn House Office Building Wednesday for the second day of his first trip to Capitol Hill as a witness, this time before members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. His prepared testimony was the same, but the atmosphere was quite different. Not… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, January 12, 2015 – President Barack Obama on Monday announced that his administration would push for two new pieces of federal internet privacy legislation, one pertaining to consumers and one pertaining to students. He also announced that the Department of Education would offer new tools to help students and teacher help protect their privacy.… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, June 13, 2013 - Most Americans have a negative view of data gathering and feel that they have little control over what information is available to businesses and the government, according to a poll released Thursday by Allstate and National Journal-Heartland Monitor. However, many Americans also recognize the benefits, including connecting with friends and… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, January 17, 2013 -- This past Tuesday, January 15th, the Broadband Breakfast Club featured explication and discussion of the key broadband policy issues projected for debate in Congress in 2013. Highlights included a keynote speech by Representative Anna G. Eshoo (D-California), Chair of the House Sub-Committee on Communications and Technology, followed by discussion among… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON Thursday April 19, 2012 – First search, then social media, and now privacy concerns? The digital world has transformed the way consumers access content; one can search an article they are interested in, subscribe to Google Reader, follow a friend’s recommendation from Twitter or read an article a co worker read via the Washington… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, Friday, April 13, 2012 – The internet policy news and events service BroadbandBreakfast.com will hold its April 2012 Broadband Breakfast Club event “Social Networking, the End of Media and Future of Privacy” on Tuesday, April 17th, 2012 at Clyde’s of Gallery Place, 707 7th St. NW, Washington, DC 20001 from 8 am – 10… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, July 28, 2010 – The Federal Trade Commission and Federal Communications Commission have formed a task force to deal with online privacy concerns facing American consumers. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON July 21, 2010- Sweden’s Pirate Party is planning to launch its own ISP which will be maintained by users. Subscribers will be responsible for fixing network issues and helping their fellow customers with technical support. The ISP will also not maintain any logs of usage. Users will access the ISP via an anonymous virtual private network service, iPredator, which famously manages The Pirate Bay. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, July 21, 2010 – Buried within a 40 page privacy policy Apple says that it will share location data with its partners. “Apple and our partners and licensees may collect, use, and share precise location data, including the real-time geographic location of your Apple computer or device.” With increased concern by consumers about the collection and use of location data and other personal data being shared with advertisers Reps. Edward Markey and Joe Barton sent Apple CEO Steve Jobs a letter requesting information on the policy and services. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, June 8, 2010 – The Online Safety and Technology Working Group (OSTWIG) have just released their report on how the government can help parents and industry protect children while on the internet. OSTWG was established by the “Broadband Data Improvement Act” (the Act), Pub. L. No. 110–385 Section 214 of the Act. The group broke itself down into 4 subgroups: Internet Safety Education, Parental Controls & Child Protection Technology, Child Pornography Reporting and Data Retention. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, June 7, 2010 – A class action lawsuit filed May 17 accuses Google of violating federal privacy and data acquisition laws, and asks that Google pay up to $100,000 to each individual from whom data was taken. The firm is also facing civil suits in Canada, the Czech Republic, France, Germany Spain and Italy. Keep Reading
Twenty-five years ago, the World Wide Web did not exist. Very few Americans had even seen a mobile phone, and broadband networks were available only to a few businesses and research institutions. Today, innovations such as broadband and others like it drive the creation of a wide variety of products and services. The competitive forces that sparked these breakthroughs need to be nurtured so that the United States can continue to reap the benefits of its unrivaled culture of innovation. Keep Reading
The Center for Democracy & Technology this week launched a “Take Back Your Privacy” campaign to support the creation of more user-friendly privacy tools and push for the passage of a federal consumer privacy law. "It's time for privacy law and online practices to catch up with the seismic shifts in technology," CDT President and CEO Leslie Harris said in a statement Thursday. "We know that Americans want better privacy protections. Take Back Your Privacy will help them make sure that their voices a Keep Reading
SAN FRANCISCO, December 2, 2009 - The phenomenal growth of online social networks is finally moving the decades-long debate over the nature of privacy in the digital world forward, said legal experts at an annual conference on innovation in San Francisco on Tuesday. Congress has threatened to enact and revamp consumer privacy laws for decades, but the complexity of the task has generally stumped the body, except for the areas of finance and health. Keep Reading
The French Constitutional Court on Thursday approved legislation that would create a graduated-response program to copyright infringement. The goal is to enable copyright owners to halt illegal peer-to-peer file-sharing without suing individual consumers. Thomas Sydnor, Senior Fellow at The Progress & Freedom Foundation hailed the move, calling it a step forward for common sense and the rule of law on the Internet. "In America today, if a caregiver for my children used one of my home computers for illegal file-sharing, copyright owners would have to file a federal lawsuit and spend thousands of dollars—which they would then have to recover from me—just to alert me to the problem,” Sydnor added. Keep Reading
The chairmen of the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission on Friday jointly encouraged the public to take safeguards to protect themselves, their privacy, and their personal information online. Keep Reading
ARLINGTON, Va., September 26, 2009 - Location-based software has become one of the hottest new web applications, fueled by the expansion of smart phone users, these applications allow users to share their location with their friends or search for businesses based on the user’s location. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, September 9, 2009 – The second panel at the Federal Communications Commission’s “consumer context” panel on September 9 focused on the tools and techniques that will enable consumers to utilize new broadband-friendly applications. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, July 25, 2009 - Advertisers need to consider consumers’ right to privacy when they collect information on individual internet consumers, a panel of academics, non-profits and industry officials agreed on Friday. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, June 3, 2009 – Officials from Google and Microsoft denied that they were creating privacy-invading user profiles of internet users, speaking at the 2009 Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference at George Washington University here. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, June 2, 2009 - Just 133 days into the Obama administration, technology policy and broadband deployment are issues "at the heart of this administration's plans for the future," special assistant to the president for science, technology and innovation policy Susan Crawford said Tuesday during opening remarks at the Computers, Freedom, Privacy conference in Washington. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, April 23, 2009 - Congressional scrutiny of consumer privacy on broadband networks, especially uses of so-called “deep packet inspection” technology, ramped up Thursday as industry representatives and consumer advocates testified before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, February 17, 2009 – The new administration of President Barack Obama has a limited window to fulfill its promise of transparency in government, said Center for Democracy & Technology officials. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, October 16 - As a part of its burgeoning lecture and discussion series, "DC Talks", Google's Washington office on Wednesday featured Berkman Center Director and Harvard Law Professor John Palfrey and his new book, Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, October 8 - The "broadband ecosystem" of the future needs strong legal, technological and cultural efforts to protect American intellectual property, a group of entertainment and technology executives said Wednesday at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Fifth Intellectual Property Summit. Keep Reading
August 21 - It's worthwhile to step back and examine the so-called digital revolution with an eye towards the future of innovation after the Progress and Freedom Foundation's summit in Aspen, Colorado. What were the essential questions asked by the summit discussants? What are possible answers? Keep Reading
July 22 – A senior AT&T lobbyist said that his company would alter the way that it advertises its high-speed internet tiers, and hinted that the telecommunication giant would soon move to usage-based billing. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, July 9 – The CEO of upstart online advertising company NebuAd sparred with the head of the non-profit Center for Democracy and Technology at a Wednesday Senate hearing about the privacy implications of internet advertising. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, July 8 – Online advertising firm NebuAd is violating individual users’ privacy, and possibly state and federal laws, officials at the Center for Democracy and Technology said at a Tuesday briefing on a report. Keep Reading
June 20 - All Americans, whether they be poor, handicapped, or rural, have the right to universal broadband service, Rep. Ed Markey said on Friday. The congressman also blasted the compromise foreign surveillance legislation that passed Congress on Friday. Keep Reading