Industry groups want a federal privacy law to hand all authority over to the FTC.

Last week, the chairs of the House and Senate Commerce committees unveiled a draft of federal data privacy legislation.

The measure would hand enforcement to the FTC, but would leave in place data breach rules the FCC adopted in December.

The current patchwork of state laws makes compliance difficult, said representatives from T-Mobile and Meta.

A national privacy standard would ensure a baseline set of protections and would restrict companies from storing and selling personal data.

Although many experts agree TikTok poses a threat, some believe a ban is the wrong solution.

The $200 billion industry specifically targets children and other vulnerable populations, experts said.

Significant regulatory discrepancies disrupt global businesses, restrict cross-border data flow and limit user choice.

The NTIA is seeking comment in light of the quickly growing potential of generative AI chatbot technology.

States are considering measures ranging from age verification to a “duty of care.”

Watch the start of the Big Tech & Speech Summit from March 9. Sign up for full webcast.

Should a federal privacy law pre-empt state laws?

The federal parties have opposite aims as to what to do about Section 230.

Cost of insurance for cybersecurity could be a problem for smaller companies.

Broadband access and privacy policies present opportunities for bipartisan collaboration, Broadband Breakfast panelists agreed.

Summit moderators will set the stage for timely discussions on content moderation, privacy and competition.

While generally supportive of a federal privacy law, some experts warned it could harm competition.

Campus TikTok bans could have negative consequences for students.

Existing digital privacy concerns are amplified in an environment designed to fully immerse users.

“The privacy landscape in the U.S. is likely to become more complicated before it gets any easier.”

Federal regulation is needed since companies often renege on voluntarily accepted agreements, argued Public Knowledge head.

Californians’ opposition to the ADPPA’s preemption provision may be the end of the comprehensive bipartisan privacy bill.

How will the 118th Congress respond to concerns about social media and data privacy?

‘This is a very important step,’ said Christopher Kuner, co-director of the Brussels Privacy Hub.

The Democratic legislator called on NTIA end the automatic disclosure of .US web domain users’ personal information.

The Digital Services Act imposes transparency requirements and other accountability measures for tech platforms.

The committee wants wider use of opt-out from certain text messages.

‘These letters show that…carrier geolocation data practices are all over the map.’

Opposition to a reformed COPPA include the ability of the FTC to enact broad rule-making.

The American Data Privacy and Protection Act cleared committee 53-2, with pushback from California legislators.

‘It is time to act,’ Alan Davidson said at an event Thursday.

The American Data Privacy and Protection Act said to be years in the making.

Former Google executive Richard Whitt critiqued Ben Tarnoff’s argument in ‘Internet for the People’ during Gigabit Libraries discussion.

‘We can’t keep overhauling the regulatory structure.’

The draft privacy law includes a provision to enhance privacy protections online for children under 17.

The bill is bipartisan, and a joint effort between the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Senate Commerce Committee.

‘The key to striking the right balance lies in ‘guided FTC rulemaking’ in a federal law, echoed by privacy experts and private sector companies alike.’

What should state leaders be doing to procure a safer, healthier information environment?

There are new proposed rules that offer legal protections to those aiding in enforcement efforts against illegal robocalls.

Different state privacy laws stifle competition and places burdens on small companies, experts say.

Comedian John Oliver wants the federal government to work on federal privacy legislation.

Emerging state-level privacy bills have common threads with existing ones in California, Colorado and Virginia.

DuckDuckGo argued that its contextual ads are effective and not intrusive.

The EU has sweeping privacy rules in place that could further influence global companies, as U.S. still without unified legislation.

If laws are robust enough and enforcement agencies are well-resourced, states should avoid implementing right to privacy action legislation.

The commissioner noted the peril democracy and citizen privacy finds themselves in around the world.

Jessica Dheere said surveillance-based business models are negatively impacting consumers’ digital rights.

And the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League calls for Section 230 reform.

Both states join California as the only ones with comprehensive privacy laws, but experts say a federal bill should fill the regulatory void.

To protect consumers in the digital revolution, experts say serious federal action on privacy can lead the way.

‘These companies know how many resources they [agencies] have,’ Klobuchar said.

Staunch privacy advocate Alvaro Bedoya appears to be Joe Biden’s pick for the FTC, Axios reports.

Experts advocate a new framework that better accommodates the global tech economy by removing data localization barriers.

Advocates want age 13 and over for privacy protection as Senate sees COPPA reform proposal.

Ajit Ghuman said Americans generally would pay more for full privacy — including on smartphone purchases.

FCBA panelists discuss data privacy and consumer protection challenges for the Biden administration.

April 1, 2021 — A Congresswoman from Washington State, who introduced federal legislation that would be the first national consumer privacy law if adopted, says the federal government is being outpaced by some states that are implementing their own consumer privacy legislation. “There is a significa

March 29, 2021 – Laws addressing how much data can be collected should be among new regulations that must ensure data collection from big technology companies doesn’t harm Americans, according to a March 17 panel of academics at the South by Southwest conference. The era of corporate self-regulation

March 11, 2021 – House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., on Thursday called for an update to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act at subcommittee hearing on “Kids Online During COVID: Child Safety in an Increasingly Digital Age.” “The challenges children face onli

March 8, 2021—Experts are concerned about the privacy implications emanating from the use of virtual and cross reality devices, which they say could collect user data without consent, and are clamoring for new laws to keep up. While most Americans are already familiar with virtual reality popularize

March 4, 2021—Artificial intelligence is present in most facets of American digital life, but experts are in a constant race to identify and address potential dangers before they impact consumers. From making a simple search on Google to listening to music on Spotify to streaming Tiger King on Netfl

March 2, 2021 –Experts are warning about the lack of understanding of the privacy implications of bitcoin, following Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s comments on February 22 that warned about the digital currency’s inefficiency. Speaking at a Technology Policy Institute event Monday about fintech i

February 16, 2021 – As the educational technology industry sees an explosion of interest as more kids are schooled at home, the Federal Trade Commission’s acting chairwoman said the agency is prioritizing the privacy implications of that. Rebecca Kelly Slaughter said the FTC is taking an all-hands-o

February 15, 2021 – Today, every company and website seem to have a complex and jargon-filled privacy policy that is impossible to understand, let alone read. While no organization has to make things complicated, they do end up using complex privacy policies as an excuse to do what they do. Organiza

February 14, 2021 – A public policy manager for Google defended the search engine giant’s trustworthiness and status during a Thursday panel discussion, even as she reiterated that the company supports a federal privacy law. Speaking at a discussion hosted by Silicon Flatirons, Sarah Holland of Goog

February 8, 2021 – When sharing content in any form, publishers need to understand the legality and impact of the content may have on foreigners, especially given the European Union’s privacy law, a panel of experts concluded at a Tuesday conference hosted by the American Bar Association. The comple

February 7, 2021 – Differences in the intellectual property and privacy landscape between Europe and the United States account are among the forces complicating the regulatory landscape around commercial data, partners at Covington’s Second Annual Technology Forum said on January 27. Further, becaus

February 3, 2021—The range and number of devices on broadband networks is causing problems in the internet-connected home, and internet service providers are only now beginning to get their hands around issues of “fragmentation” caused by this growth. Results of a five-year survey laying out these c

January 29, 2021—A chain reaction of state-led data privacy initiatives has ignited across the country as states consider consumer data protection polices similar to those recently passed in California. “The state of Washington’s proposed data privacy act, although not yet passed, has been heavily i

January 27, 2021 – Keynoting Wednesday’s State of the Net Conference, former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell urged the new administration of Joe Biden to promote broadband, fiber, 5G wireless networks – as well as allowing consumers to move seamlessly across wired and wirel

January 12, 2021 – Privacy is of paramount importance as the world accelerates its adoption of new technology during a tumultuous pandemic, big tech companies said during a panel at the Consumer Technology Association’s CES 2021. Technology has become increasingly more important in our lives, said A

November 23, 2020 – Americans need to have secure and unique digital identity documents if the county has a hope to compete with other world powers like China, said Toomas Ilves, former president of Estonia. Ilves was speaking at a German Marshall Fund event on Friday what asked on what subject he t

October 22, 2020 – The European Commission will issue a draft for modernized standard contractual clauses “very soon,” said Bruno Gencarelli, head of International Data Flows and Protection for the commission, speaking at Technology Policy Institute event on Monday. Protecting privacy and data flows

October 6, 2020 — As technological advances allow for more data to be generated on consumers, the public has become more attuned to the need for national data privacy legislation. Yet there is a countervailing trend: Data portability as possible antitrust remedy against dominant tech platforms. On M

September 18, 2020 — The United States Commerce Department said Friday that it plans to restrict access to WeChat and TikTok, two Chinese-developed apps, as of midnight on Sunday. On August 6, President Donald Trump signed an executive order seeking to ban U.S. “transactions” with WeChat and TikTok

September 14, 2020 – The transatlantic relationship between the European Union and the United States has reached a critical point, as the countries’ data privacy policies continue to clash. On July 16, a legal decision by the Court of Justice of the European Union, Schrems II, moved to invalidate th

September 11, 2020 – Given the way that robocalls “implicate a wide jurisdiction,” Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai stressed the need for collaboration to end the crisis of unwanted calls and specifically lauded the so-called STIR/SHAKEN protocol for phone number verification. Iro

August 6, 2020 — Although many ethical technologies are still in early developmental stages, they are here to stay, said participants in an Axios webinar Thursday. The webinar, titled “Ethical Tech in a Time of Crisis,” saw participants discuss the strengths and shortcomings of the ways in which tec

July 27, 2020 — Online data practices are negatively impacting the lives of internet users, said Woodrow Hartzog, professor of law and computer science at Northeastern University on Monday. Speaking on an episode of Let’s Talk Privacy & Technology, a podcast hosted by Santa Clara University, Hartzog

July 21, 2020 — Allowing users of online platforms to shape the use of their own private information can be a tricky practice, and not necessarily one that platforms are incentivized to employ, said participants in a Federal Trade Commission PrivacyCon webinar on Tuesday. Speaking about the General

July 14, 2020 — Russia is actively attempting to shift trusted institutions both in the United States and abroad, said participants in a Center for Strategic and International Studies webinar Tuesday. Nina Jankowicz, a disinformation fellow at the Wilson Center, said that when institutions are swaye

July 10, 2020 — The coronavirus pandemic has created an environment that is highly vulnerable to nefarious actors, said Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., in a House Energy and Commerce hearing with members of the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce on Thursday. A rise in disinformation, brou

June 29, 2020 — The coronavirus has exacerbated the threat of electoral interference, said journalists and legislative experts in a webinar Monday. Panelists joined the George Washington University Institute for Data, Democracy, and Politics for a discussion about electoral interference in 2016 and

June 22, 2020 — Legal experts disagreed on Monday about whether Section 230 is exacerbating or helping to solve problems with the current state of online content moderation. “I think the real friction point is because Section 230 is counterintuitive — it says that you can exercise control and not be

June 18, 2020 — The coronavirus pandemic and the resulting shift to primarily-online learning have placed students’ privacy in jeopardy, said participants in a Thursday webinar hosted by the Center for Democracy and Technology.   The shift to online schooling in the wake of the pandemic has left mil

June 17, 2020 — As the world adjusts to the long-running nature of the coronavirus pandemic, people in democracies are increasingly discussing relying on technology to assist in elections. As many are calling for online voting options to be offered in upcoming elections, the importance of understand

June 17, 2020 — The smart cities of the future have the potential to be extraordinarily efficient and to minimize the danger of natural disasters, said UTOPIA Fiber CEO Roger Timmerman in a Tuesday webinar sponsored by Utah Ignite. The coronavirus pandemic has made social media and other technologie

June 10, 2020 — The development of digital contact tracing solutions raises endless security issues: Where should data be stored and for how long? Should public health authorities have access? Should app adoption be voluntary or involuntary? In a webinar hosted on Wednesday by the Center for Democra

June 8, 2020 — States that utilized cloud computing for cybersecurity initiatives were better positioned to handle the surge in cybersecurity attacks that resulted from network vulnerabilities being amplified by increased telework during COVID-19. As cities prepare for up to 70 percent of IT workers

June 5, 2020 — The rise of telehealth across the country could mean a lack of privacy for its users, said participants in an LBJ School webinar Wednesday. Speaking to the organization about the privacy risks posed by the increasingly widespread use of remote healthcare technologies, panelists said t

June 4, 2020 — Victor M. Rios, associate dean at the University of California Santa Barbara, has filed a class action against Zoom Video Communications, Inc. Rios is accusing the company of allowing a known offender who had been reported multiple times to authorities to Zoombomb a 400-person video c

June 4, 2020 — Federal privacy legislation is more important than ever, said participants in a Brookings Institution webinar Wednesday. Federal Trade Commissioner Christine Wilson said that privacy concerns are at an all-time high in the age of coronavirus, and the time was right for oversight of te

June 1, 2020 — Google and Apple are rarely criticized for not collecting enough data on users, but under the state of emergency COVID-19 has brought about, this is no longer the case, said panelists at a webinar hosted Thursday by the Cato Institute. Because users’ location data could help reduce th

May 28, 2020 — Not all internet infrastructures are created equal, and some are more susceptible to cybersecurity attacks than others. According to panelists on a Fiber for Breakfast webinar hosted Wednesday by the Fiber Broadband Association, fiber optic internet infrastructure is far less vulnerab

May 27, 2020 — The internet could be better serving world peoples affected by the coronavirus pandemic, said Tim Berners-Lee, who created the World Wide Web, in a webinar Wednesday. The webinar was hosted by the Wall Street Journal’s Future of Everything Festival, which brings together top business

A new Twitter feature allows users to decide who can reply to their tweets, sparking questions about the constitutionality of the function when used by government officials. The feature gives users the option of opening their tweet to responses from all other users, only those who they follow or onl

May 2, 2020—News about the coronavirus pandemic “shouldn’t be an avalanche that buries” news on human rights, said David Kaye, a law professor at the University of California, Irvine, at a Thursday webinar hosted by the George Washington Elliott School of International Affairs. Kaye criticized the w

April 20, 2020— When a Zoom user had his question read out during the “Ask Eric Anything” webinar on Wednesday, Zoom CEO Eric Yuan listened intently. “Will Zoom be adding more emojis to its social features anytime soon?” the user asked. Yuan disappointed the user immediately. “We’re not going to all

April 19, 2020 – Apple and Google are forgoing using their massive troves of location data for contact tracing and instead tinkering with the less invasive “proximity tracing,” according to industry analysts at a FutureTense webinar on Thursday on “Will the Coronavirus Claim Privacy Among its Victim

April 19, 2020— The Federal Trade Commission will take into account “good faith” when exercising prosecutorial discretion for investigating Zoom, said agency commissioner Noah Phillips in an event hosted by Politico on Tuesday. Although Phillips said, “I can’t speak to whether there’s an investigati

April 10, 2020 – Data produced by cell phones is “not sufficiently accurate to be used for contact tracing,” according to Jay Stanley, senior policy analyst at a Wednesday press briefing by the American Civil Liberties Union. Contact tracing is the practice of using data to infer the likelihood that

April 10, 2020 – Data privacy regulation will undergo a subtle but massive shift due to the coronavirus, according to panelists in a webinar hosted by the Technology Policy Institute on Tuesday. “The pandemic has revealed ways in which tradeoffs need to be made with privacy,” said Jane Bambaur, a la

Sens. Edward Markey, D-Mass., Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., Michael Bennet, D-Colo., and Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, on Thursday joined 31 of their colleagues in a letter to House and Senate leadership requesting funding for all K-12 students to have adequate home internet connectivity if their schools close

April 1, 2020 –States have put privacy legislation on a back burner during the coronavirus pandemic. At the same time, even the well-known California Consumer Privacy Act may be superseded by a new referendum, the California Privacy Rights Act, to be placed on the state’s ballot in November. Passed

WASHINGTON, March 9, 2020 – The Wednesday panel session hosted by the Federal Communications Bar Association’s Consumer Protection Committee featured attorneys laying out the overwhelming public frustration with robocalls. The panel was the last FCBA session in March. On Monday, the FCBA announced t

The House of Representatives passed a revised version of the Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technological Availability (DATA) act on Tuesday to the applause of many broadband advocacy groups. If signed into law, the DATA act would establish more rigorous rules for the Federal Communication Commis

Telecommuting and telemedicine are beginning to be discussed as potential remedies to the damage being done by the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. A New York Times op-ed by Nicholas Kristof questions U.S. leadership’s response to coronavirus, and also wonders if “this is a time to develop telemedicine”

In the seemingly never-ending debate over whether broadband classifies as a Title I information service, or a Title 2 telecommunications service, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas regrets his ruling in 2005 that “gave federal agencies extensive power to interpret U.S. law,” reports Jon Brodkin f

WASHINGTON, February 12, 2020 – As states draft and pass state-wide privacy laws, company compliance becomes increasingly “untenable,” said Konture Technology Services President Scott Crespo at a privacy event held Wednesday by CompTIA. Crespo helps companies of varying sizes meet privacy laws, a jo

Pro-tech advocates changed more minds than their anti-tech counterparts at a Silicon Flatirons debate on Sunday. Pro-tech and anti-tech advocates engaged in an Oxford-style debate at the Silicon Flatirons conference, “Technology Optimism and Pessimism” at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Both

A New York federal court on Tuesday refused to block the planned $56 billion merger between T-Mobile and Sprint, Law360 reports, rejecting a challenge by 14 state attorneys general to the deal. U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero issued an order siding with the companies, and with the U.S. Justice De

WASHINGTON, February 5, 2020 – Fines under the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation follow patterns, some predictable and others less so, according to a presentation by lawyers Dan Cooper and Nicholas Shepherd of Covington and Burling. The GDPR went into effect summer of 2018, and so

WASHINGTON, January 30, 2020 – Even though broadband is often considered a part of interstate commerce, city leaders need to take gaps in the law into their own hands by legislating on broadband topics, said panelists at a session on cities and states at the State of the Net conference on Tuesday. P

Presidential hopeful and former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg released a $1 trillion dollar infrastructure plan that he says will create millions of jobs, reports The Hill. Buttigieg’s infrastructure plan focuses on changes at the community level, including “expanding and repairing road and public

WASHINGTON, January 29, 2020 – Federal privacy legislation is necessary to ensure standardization of legal treatment, technology experts said Tuesday at the 2020 State of the Net conference. On a panel on “Privacy and Preemption” at the annual tech policy gathering, speakers acknowledged the role of

WASHINGTON, January 28, 2020 – Proponents of the high tech industry and law enforcement officials from several countries squared off, with fundamental disagreements about whether catching thousands of pedophiles or securing billions of people’s data represented the greater good. Researcher at the MI

WASHINGTON, January 24, 2020 – Panelists at a Next Century Cities event on Thursday clashed on the appropriate federal role in the regulation of digital privacy, but generally agreed on the importance of minimizing algorithmic bias in targeting a particular racial or ethnic group. The panel began wi

WASHINGTON, January 14, 2020 – Google’s decision to require all content creators for YouTube to designate whether their videos are intended for children is negatively impacting online free speech, a bevy of influencers said at a TechFreedom event on Monday. The market-oriented non-profit organized p

Federal Trade Commission Chairman Joseph Simons on Tuesday talked up the role of competition, and his agency’s role in enforcing it, at a CES 2020 Event with the Consumer Technology Association in Las Vegas. In a question and answer session with CTA CEO Gary Shapiro, Simons stressed the FTC’s dual f

WASHINGTON, December 11, 2019 – Lawmakers remain concerned about law enforcement’s inability to access highly encrypted devices for investigations. Tuesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing questioned some representatives from big tech on the matter. This isn’t going to be a world where social me

WASHINGTON, November 20, 2019 – At its core, the California Consumer Privacy Act is a law that allows individuals to know how their personal information is used by companies, but does not protect that information from being used, legal experts said at a Federal Communications Bar Association panel T

New Hampshire state legislature is in the works of forming a bill authorizing multi-town districts for the purpose of establishing a broadband system, Government Technology reports. Although the bill has yet to be finished, said State Sen. Jeanne Dietsch, its framework will help the smallest towns t

WASHINGTON, November 7, 2019 – The poor and working classes are most concerned about privacy and surveillance, yet current privacy laws ultimately benefit the wealthy, experts say at a Georgetown University Law Center Thursday. The event highlighted how marginalized groups are monitored, both physic

WASHINGTON, October 25, 2019 – A growing bipartisan consensus emerged from a Thursday Senate Banking Committee hearing that technology companies are improperly extracting the bulk of the value of consumers’ online digital data. Private companies are collecting and analyzing individual data for all k

WASHINGTON, October 22, 2019 – Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will be in the spotlight again on Wednesday, when he is scheduled to testify before the House Financial Services Committee Wednesday about the Libra cryptocurrency project. The hearing will follow-up to Libra Co-Creator David Marcus’ congre

Big technology companies were a big target during Tuesday night’s debate in Ohio of the leading Democratic presidential candidates. No new candidate joined Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s pledge to break up Facebook, Amazon and Google, with the possible exception of billionaire climate activis

Two separate bi-partisan groups of state attorneys general on Friday confirmed that they are launching antitrust investigations into tech giant companies Google and Facebook. New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, on Friday announced that she and eight other state attorneys general wil

WASHINGTON, September 6, 2019 – Wearable fitness trackers are just another way of monitoring personal data. Yet the market for wearables is booming, because people want to optimize their fitness routines through self-monitoring of vital signs. Aside from personal use, fitness tracker data is valuabl

WASHINGTON, September 5, 2019 – In the context of the increasing scrutiny faced by global technology and internet companies, the think tank New America has taken a stab at producing a comprehensive overview of how these powerful and influential global companies address and respect users’ privacy, tr

The Trump Administration on Tuesday decided to delay a new 10 percent tariff for Chinese goods such as laptops and other electronics, Law360 reported. Any other products will have a tariff imposed beginning in September. The decision to delay tariffs stems from importers who warned that expanding th

WASHINGTON, August 8, 2019 – News of another data breach at Facebook marketing partner Hyp3r on Thursday prompted more demands for federal privacy legislation. According to the non-profit group Public Knowledge, Hyp3r collected public records of Instagram users’ geolocation, personal bios, followers

WASHINGTON, August 6, 2019 — The United States should be cautious about including language similar to the Communication Decency Act’s Section 230 in trade agreements, wrote two members of the House Energy & Commerce Committee in a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. Article 19.17

WASHINGTON, August 6, 2019 – If not properly executed, a federal privacy law could cost billions, according to a report released Monday by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. Legislation that mirrors many of the key provisions in the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation or Calif

WASHINGTON, July 30, 2019 – Disputing the stereotype that the “millennial” generation doesn’t value privacy as much as their elders do, former Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., said that the result of a recent survey on attitudes about privacy suggest that it’s time for Congress to act on privacy legislatio

WASHINGTON, July 30, 2019 – Privacy legislation and antitrust action don’t normally get discussed together. Yet as big tech firms are increasingly under fire from competition authorities, privacy law becomes a potential tool against social media and search engine giants. At FiscalNote’s Privacy and

Third party websites that use Facebook’s “Like” button can be held liable for processing personal user data and transmitting it to Facebook, according to the European Union’s top court. The owner of a website can be held jointly responsible for “the collection and transmission to Facebook of the per

The Department of Justice announced Friday that it and the Attorneys General for five states reached a settlement with T-Mobile and Sprint regarding their proposed merger. The settlement requires a substantial divestiture package in order to enable a viable facilities-based competitor to enter the m

WASHINGTON, July 24, 2019 – Experts in law enforcement and privacy came together at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation on Wednesday to debunk common assumptions of how officials use facial recognition. For law enforcement to properly meet the needs of the community, they we must ma

WASHINGTON, July 24, 2019 — The Federal Trade Commission announced on Wednesday details of its $5 billion settlement with Facebook over privacy violations such as the Cambridge Analytica scandal. In addition to the fine, the company will have to provide quarterly compliance reports and form an indep

Locally-run internet service providers offer better broadband than their private sector counterparts, according to a recent study by PCMag. The data shows that six of America’s ten fastest ISPs either involve some form of public-private partnership or were run directly by a local community. “Local n

WASHINGTON, July 24, 2019 — As concern about smart home technology grows, three progressive representatives are planning to introduce a bill this week to ban facial recognition technologies from public housing. “Surveillance technology is often used to track and control vulnerable communities, parti

California businesses and legislators are pushing to change the California Consumer Privacy Act, San Francisco Chronicle reports. Dirk Lorenz, owner of Fremont Flowers, said that the law will affect not only big tech firms, but small businesses as well. “It’s going to cost a good deal of money,” he

On Thursday, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai urging the agency to utilize public input to fix broadband coverage maps. “The FCC’s maps are still woefully inaccurate, and they are hurting the economy and the people of West Virginia,” said

The Consumer Technology Association announced on Tuesday that it will invest in Harlem Capital Partners and SoGal Ventures as part of its $10 million commitment to venture firms and funds that invest in women, people of color, and other underrepresented entrepreneurs. Harlem Capital Partners is a mi

In every corner of the country and around the world, leaders are trying to make their cities “smarter.” These projects are often in response to specific and on-going demands — such as parking, overcrowding, noise, and pollution — while others have started to address broader goals — such as reduction

WASHINGTON, July 17, 2019 — The “honeymoon phase” of tech is definitely over. As a result, federal privacy legislation is essential. So said two prominent members of Congress – one Democrat and one Republican – at a Wednesday event hosted by Charter Communications and the Future of Privacy Forum on

The Electronic Frontier Foundation announced Tuesday that it is filing a class action lawsuit on behalf of AT&T customers in California to stop the telecom giant and two data location aggregators from allowing third parties to access wireless customers’ real-time locations without authorization. The

WASHINGTON, July 16,2019- Facebook’s venture into cryptocurrency raised a high degree of concern among some members of the Senate Banking Committee at a hearing on Tuesday. Committee Ranking Member Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio., said Facebook is “dangerous” and that it does “all it can” to manipulate

WASHINGTON, July 15, 2019 — Rather than seeking to break up big technology giants, Congress should instead focus on ratcheting up regulation of the online platform players to curb their greatest abuses, public interest advocate Harold Feld argued on Monday. Feld, the author of the recent e-book, “Th

WASHINGTON, July 15, 2019 – An industry-focused panel of observers of privacy issues argued that a federal approach the topic needs to preempt state-based data protection. At the Monday event hosted by CompTia, these officials went so far as to suggest that federal privacy rules would be more protec

On Friday afternoon, the Federal Trade Commission has issued a fine of $5 billion to Facebook for privacy violations. Adam Satariano of the New York Times reported that regulators and lawmakers in the U.S. and abroad have begun conducting investigations and proposing new sanctions against the Silico

WASHINGTON, July 15, 2019 — Senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley want the Federal Trade Commission to use its investigatory authority to demand internal documents and information pertaining to content moderation policies at major technology companies like Google, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, and to r

WASHINGTON, July 11, 2019 — Congress urgently needs to create a federal privacy law, said panelists at a privacy conference held by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Thursday. However, coming to a consensus on the specifics of such a law has been and will continue to be a major roadblock. Lawmakers ha

WASHINGTON, July 9, 2019 – Privacy is a good place to start with public policy concerning the internet of things, said Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., in a keynote address at the AT&T Forum for Technology, Entertainment and Policy Tuesday. With more than 3.8 billion people around the world using the in

WASHINGTON, July 9, 2019 — YouTube has been “inadequate and abysmally slow in responding” to recent allegations that its algorithms promote child sexualization, said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday. If big tech companies don’t take sufficient steps to protect children from exploitation on

Silicon Flatirons announced Amie Stepanovich as the new executive director of the technology policy think tank based at the University of Colorado Law School. A noted cybersecurity and privacy law and policy expert, she plans to build upon Silicon Flatirons’ legacy of interdisciplinary conferences a

Trade negotiations with the U.S. and China are “right back on track,” said President Trump this Saturday at the G20 Summit in Japan. The Guardian reports that after the president met with Chinese general secretary Xi Jinping, he announced that the U.S will not impose further tariffs against Chinese

Following a string of data breaches that touched tens of millions of consumers, and revelations of user data exploitation by popular social media platforms, there’s a broad national consensus: It’s time for internet users to have guarantees about privacy and data protection. Legislation is long over

WASHINGTON, June 27, 2019 — Forcing websites and online platforms to be more transparent about the ways in which they collect and utilize consumer data is a step in the right direction, but it’s not enough, said speakers at a Federal Trade Commission conference on Thursday. Panelists at the fourth a

WASHINGTON, June 27, 2019 — A Tuesday Senate Commerce Subcommittee hearing, on “Optimizing for Engagement: Understanding the Use of Persuasive Technology on Internet Platforms,” became an open invitation for senators to attack the business model of the technology industry. At the hearing, Google con

WASHINGTON, June 27, 2019 – The framework for federal privacy regulation is emerging as another flashpoint in some conservatives’ political battles with Silicon Valley powerhouses. In particular Tennessee Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn said Wednesday that technology companies are using the complex

WASHINGTON, June 25, 2019 — Following the Federal Communications Commission’s recent order against robocalls, for added measure the House Energy & Commerce Committee Communications Subcommittee voted on Tuesday to approve a legislative measure against robocalls. The bill, known as the “Stopping Bad

WASHINGTON, June 25, 2019 — Fears about Google’s potential ability to influence the upcoming 2020 election ran rampant at a Senate hearing on Tuesday. That, coupled with allegations that the search engine giant inappropriately benefits from federal protections against liability, created a pressure c

WASHINGTON, June 20, 2019 — Talking tough against Silicon Valley may be popular. But breaking up big tech will be hard to do. That, at least, was one of the key messages coming from the American Antitrust Institute’s annual conference here on Thursday. While progressives and populists are resurgent

WASHINGTON June 17, 2019 – In spite of an advanced smartphone-based payments system that is widely adopted in China, panelists at a Brookings Institute event on Monday expressed skepticism that such a system would become popular in the United States. More and more people in are exclusively using pay

WASHINGTON, June 17, 2019 — Companies whose legally-placed robocalls are blocked under the June 6 order of the Federal Communications Commission may need to adjust their perception of consumer expectations, a top Enforcement Bureau chief at the Federal Communications Commission said last week. Indee

WASHINGTON, June 11, 2019 — The practices of Google and Facebook were closely scrutinized at a House Antitrust Subcommittee hearing Tuesday, and the companies’ impact upon the digital news media came in for particularly stark criticism. Some said that these major tech platforms were making it diffic

WASHINGTON, June 8, 2019 — Telecommunications providers can now block robocalls by default, according to a Federal Communications Commission ruling on Thursday. In principle, the measure had bipartisan support. But Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel dissented in part because the order didn’t require p

WASHINGTON, June 5, 2019 – Further ratcheting up its call for government regulation of the technology industry, speakers at the New America’s Open Technology Institute called for government rules to limit hate speech online. Doing so is necessary in order to solve the dichotomy of maintaining free s

WASHINGTON, June 4, 2019 – The United States government needs to regulate data and information technology more like those of European member states, said Europeans and Americans speaking at a New America Foundation event on Tuesday. “It’s clear that technology is front and center in a conflict that

WASHINGTON, June 1, 2019 – Congress needs a plan for how to proceed when certain provisions of the USA FREEDOM Act, including the controversial call detail records program, expires in December, said speakers at a public forum held by members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board on Frid

BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: The CEO and Executive Vice President of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, a trade group for digital marketers, argue in a Tuesday OpEd for “Do Not Track Plus” legislation. With civil society and lobbyists alike joining the chorus for privacy legislation, it’s looking m

WASHINGTON, May 2, 2019 – Social media and technology platform companies are wasting the talents of a generation, addicting and impoverishing middle America, and even driving teenagers to commit suicide in record numbers, Sen. Josh Hawley said Thursday. In a blistering speech attacking Facebook, Goo

The California Consumer Privacy Act passed into law in 2018 is scheduled to go into effect January 2020. It could potentially have dire consequences for unprepared businesses serving their customers especially when they demand to be forgotten. The new law affects everyone from internet service provi

BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: Google is beginning to enter into hunker-down mode. The company is finally alive to the grave new threats that it faces. They are two-pronged: More-intensive antitrust scrutiny, and regulation of privacy/AI/Section 230 free speech. As Drew Clark wrote about for a CATO In

From the University of Colorado’s Silicon Flatirons Program on “Internet Platforms’ Rising Dominance, Evolving Governance”: * We are living in the era of the internet platform.  From Apple’s app store to Google’s search and Chrome browser to Facebook to Amazon to broadband internet access, internet users depend on

At the Silicon Flatirons event at the University of Colorado, a heated (!) debate about economic harms, and how it should impact privacy law. 02/10/19 4:30pm – 5:30pm DEBATE: PRIVACY LAW SHOULD FOCUS ONLY ON ECONOMIC HARM Pierre de Vries — Moderator Spectrum Policy Initiative Co-director and Executi

BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: We’ve written about the California Consumer Privacy Act before in “European and Chinese Pressures are Squeezing Silicon Valley, Threatening a Global ‘Splinternet’. The fact of multiple states passing significant privacy legislation is one of the potential drivers for fed

BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: We remember reading The Transparent Society 20 years ago, back in the days when Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy said, “You have no privacy; get over it.” Brin’s book was remarkably prescient in providing a pathway for how to live with the ever-decreasing private space

WASHINGTON, December 11, 2018 – The CEO of search engine Google came to Washington on Tuesday and politely rebutted all charges that the world’s largest search engine is biased against conservative viewpoints. In the calm and controlled voice of an engineer, CEO Sundar Pichai said, “Our products are

WASHINGTON, August 8, 2018 – Experts in broadband data analysis on Tuesday criticized internet service providers for overstating coverage in federal broadband data collection efforts, and for resisting cooperation that could increase network security. At an event commemorating the 10th anniversary o

WASHINGTON, July 31, 2018 – The U.S. is falling behind in internet regulation and risks losing the global internet leadership position to the EU, China, and Russia, some internet privacy experts said at a Senate subcommittee hearing on Tuesday. On July 31, the Subcommittee on Communications, Technol

BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: Are Facebook and Amazon really GDPR compliant? Researchers used artificial intellence software to analyze Facebook and Amazon new GDPR policies. The AI tool found one-third of policy clauses to be “potentially problematic” or containing “insufficient information”, which

WASHINGTON, July 9, 2018 – The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation is raising the danger of the “splinternet” syndrome, as top tech companies prioritize international standards over American ones, warned experts at a June 28 event of the Federalist Society. Officials from Google, Mic

WASHINGTON, June 22, 2018 — People living, working, or traveling in the United States gained a bit more privacy Friday after the Supreme Court found that police must obtain a search warrant before asking wireless carriers to turn over some types records which reveal a mobile phone’s location history

WASHINGTON, June 21, 2018 – Top digital advertising experts defended the importance of data collection against a committee skeptical of ad companies’ ethics. With data privacy increasingly at the forefront of tech policy debate, a June 14 House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on the digital ad

WASHINGTON, June 21, 2018 – The man behind the app at the heart of the Cambridge Analytica data scandal defended the company’s use of personal data in front of the Senate, claiming he believed there was “almost no chance” that the data helped political campaigns in the 2016 election. The U.S. Senate

WASHINGTON, June 20, 2018 – Data privacy experts questioned the effectiveness of the European General Data Protection Regulation as a means of regulating international data privacy on the grounds that it may be incompatible with current U.S. policies. At the 2nd Annual Transatlantic Symposium on inf

WASHINGTON, June 7, 2018 – A top Facebook policy official on Wednesday defended the social media giant’s new policies about safeguarding privacy and data transparency against the doubts of an audience at the New America Foundation, a think tank generally friendly to Facebook. In recent months, Faceb

WASHINGTON, June 4, 2018 – If the tenor of a Thursday event at the CATO Institute is any indication, Facebook continues to face tough scrutiny from many sides in Washington. Although the event was titled, “Will Social Media Save Democracy?”, the panel instead became a multi-pronged attack on the com

WASHINGTON, April 10, 2018 – After months of seemingly-unending scandal over his company’s role in the 2018 election, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg began his first of two days of testimony on Capitol Hill Tuesday by making it clear he was well aware of the laundry list of problems with the company he

WASHINGTON, April 5, 2018 — As Facebook users continue to learn more about how the social networking pioneer allowed third parties to gain access to contact information, lists of friends, interests, and other information, the companies behind another social networking app are beginning to face scrut

WASHINGTON, March 23, 2018 – The odds that Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg will make an appearance on Capitol Hill to explain his company’s actions regarding the misuse of millions of Facecook users’ data by Cambridge Analytica – the “big data” company linked to President Donald Tru

WASHINGTON, July 3, 2017 – Self-driving vehicles could reduce congestion, supplement public transit systems and help the elderly and disabled travel safely, said Jeffrey Massimilla, chief product cybersecurity officer of Product Cybersecurity for General Motors, at a Federal Trade Commission worksho

ARLINGTON, Virginia, June 18, 2017 – The key to defending against security breaches is collecting more data, said a University of Illinois at Chicago professor during a June 8 panel at the on the law and economics of privacy and data security. Hosted at George Mason University here and moderated by

WASHINGTON, June 15, 2017 – Cybercrimes cost the global economy about $450 billion annually, House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tennessee, said Tuesday as she cited the 2017 Hiscox Cyber Readiness Report. “Hackers are smart, and they are adapting,” said Blackburn. “McAfee

BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: With the House Rules Committee’s decision to press for a House vote on internet privacy on Tuesday, it’s an “all hands on deck” sort of moment, as multiple parties weight into the pros and cons of approving the Senate’s use of the Congressional Review Act to overturn Oba

Public Knowledge Files Opposition for Reconsideration to Save Broadband Privacy Rules for Consumers On Monday, Public Knowledge, joined by Benton Foundation and the Center for Digital Democracy, filed an Opposition to Petitions for Reconsideration of the Federal Communications Commission’s Broadband

Broadband Breakfast Insight: Flake’s bill is just one of the many signs that telecommunications issues are likely to be discussed more, not less, in Congress this year. This diminishes the importance of action at the FCC, relegating it to serving a secondary role on more technical issues. GOP senato

WASHINGTON, February 6, 2017  – The House of Representatives on Monday approved by voice vote the Email Privacy Act, H.R. 387, designed to protect Americans’ privacy and public safety in the digital age. Below is a statement from House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Virginia, applaudi

Cattanach_Robert (640x427) [https://broadbandbreakfast.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Cattanach_Robert-640x427-300x200.jpg]https://broadbandbreakfast.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Cattanach_Robert-640x427.jpgEditor’s Note: On Wednesday, the Federal Communications Commission announced a $25 million

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 tool

WASHINGTON, September 15, 2014 – Set to pass a proposal enduring public utility regulation of broadband providers under Title II of the Communications Act, the California Public Utilities Commission instead put the proposal on hold, reported Multichannel News. The proposal endorsing Title II regulat

WASHINGTON, July 30, 2014 – The House Agriculture Subcommittee on Livestock, Rural Development and Credit held a hearing on coordinating the future of broadband investment. Lang Zimmerman, vice president of Yelcot Telephone Co., a member company of rural broadband association NTCA testified that fun

WASHINGTON, June 12, 2014 – Microsoft is determined to fight a recent U.S. government demand for a user’s emails on company computers in Ireland, The Wall Street Journal reported. “Congress has not authorized the issuance of warrants that reach outside U.S. territory,” Microsoft wrote in its filing

WASHINGTON, May 22, 2014 – The House of Representatives passed the USA Freedom Act on Thursday in a 303 to 121 vote, according to Ars Technica, instituting changes to the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of American phone records. The goal is to end the practice of gathering records of met

WASHINGTON, April 9, 2014 – Today, Senator Edward J. Markey (@MarkeyMemo) and Rep. Joe Barton (@RepJoeBarton) are hosting a Twitter Q&A on children’s online privacy. Using the hashtag #AskKidsPriv, the lawmakers will be answering questions on Twitter about how parents can protect their children onli

WASHINGTON, September 6, 2013 – In the wake of reports in The New York Times, ProPublica, and The Guardian that the National Security Agency had embarked on a system of cracking widespread industry-used encryption protocols, at least one industry group and non-profit organization highlighted the nee

WASHINGTON, July 29, 2013 — The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation held a panel on the impact of the National Security Agency’s PRISM program on digital trade last Wednesday. Ambassador Phil Verveer, former coordinator of international communication and information policy, said recent

WASHINGTON, July 12, 2013 – A panel of experts discussed the potential for the use of cloud computing by federal agencies at an event held by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation on Wednesday morning. The security of cloud computing was a primary concern for many of the panelists. Ma

WASHINGTON, June 28, 2013 – The status of the development of the national smart grid and its relationship to broadband buildouts was the center of discussion at the June 2013 Broadband Breakfast Club. The concept of smart grid is a marriage of intelligence and communications, said David Wollman, Dep

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 Americ

SALT LAKE CITY, March 25, 2013 – Dennis Brimhall, CEO of Family Search International, discusses some of the recent changes and upgrades to the FamilySearch.org web site during the RootsTech conference here. FamilySearch.org is one of the most well-used genealogy web sites in the world. During the in

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

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

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, Washin

WASHINGTON, August 3, 2011 – U.S. customers may soon begin seeing data security technology involving ATMs and cell phones that would work without tracking people thanks to the efforts of a European security software company. Patrick Carroll, CEO of ValidSoft Limited, discussed the company’s real-ti

WASHINGTON July 18, 2011- Two congressional subcommittees called on the heads of several government agencies late last week to inquire how each addresses Internet privacy issues. The panel, assembled by the Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade and the Subcommittee on Communications an

WASHINGTON, July 13, 2011 – Child ID Theft more commonly occurs via organized crime, but the most severe damage happens when done by family members, experts concluded at a joint Child ID Theft forum Tuesday. Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice held the forum one day after hacktivist

WASHINGTON, July 1, 2011 – The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee assembled Wednesday its third hearing this legislative session on data privacy and security. In a hearing rushed so that members could make it to the Senate floor in time to vote, members and witnesses from governm

WASHINGTON, June 28, 2011 – A Center for American Progress panel assembled Monday explored the challenges presented by emerging Internet technology privacy issues with respect to Federal Trade Commission enforcement, child safety and free speech rights. Julie Brill, FTC Commissioner, addressed private sector and government solutions for protecting consumer data privacy

WASHINGTON June 16, 2011- Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law, Sen. Al Franken (D-MN), along with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), introduced a bill Wednesday that would make rules more stringent for collecting geolocation data on mobile device users. The

WASHINGTON, May 27, 2011 – House Subcommittee members received answers long on ideas but short on specifics when they probed Obama administration officials during a hearing Wednesday on the President’s cybersecurity review. The House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Compet

WASHINGTON, May 9, 2011 – Reps. Joe Barton (R-TX) and Ed Markey (D-MD) released a discussion draft of to-be-introduced legislation that would update the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act to reflect changes in current technology. The Do Not Track Kids Act of 2011 would make several changes to

WASHINGTON May 5, 2011- At the Washington Caucus meeting of the Computer and Communications Industry Association Wednesday, Congressional leaders presented their views on preserving the Open Internet, expanding patent reform, ensuring consumer privacy online and the need for spectrum reform.

WASHINGTON, April 14, 2011 – In a town where there are as many opinions as there are issues, TechFreedom, a new think tank, aims to provide a non-partisan approach to privacy issues from a free market, libertarian stance. The core focus of TechFreedom approaches privacy issues from two vantage poin

WASHINGTON, March 31, 2011 – Reps. Edward Markey (D-MA) and Joe Barton (R-TX), Co-Chairmen of the House Bi-Partisan Privacy Caucus sent letters Tuesday to Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T asking the wireless companies to disclose how the firms collect and stored user location data. The letters to

PROVO, March 28, 2011 – Facebook founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) visited Provo, Utah, Friday to answer questions posted to the Brigham Young University Facebook page.

WASHINGTON, February 28, 2011 – Reps. Joe Barton (R-TX) and Edward Markey (D-MA), Co-Chairmen of the House Bipartisan Privacy Caucus, shared Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s response to a letter they wrote to him on February 2, 2011, questioning a particular privacy feature on Facebook that would pote

WASHINGTON, November 3, 2010 – As consumers provide large amounts of private information to web services, the government is tuning into the fact that the use of this information by these companies is becoming increasingly important.

WASHINGTON, August 31, 2010 – India’s government has given BlackBerry-maker RIM two more months to comply with a request for increased access to e-mail from its users.

WASHINGTON, August 19, 2010 – India is the latest nation to require Research in Motion to provide a government with access to the traffic across the RIM network. The nation gave the Canadian phone maker until the end of the month to comply with a request for access to its network. RIM has acquiesced

WASHINGTON, August 16, 2010 – Complaints to the Federal Communication Commission about various issues increased 230 percent during the first quarter of this year over the fourth quarter of last year, largely thanks to broadcast indecency incidents. General inquires increased 7 percent during this ti

WASHINGTON, July 29, 2010 – Following an investigation of Google’s unauthorized Wi-Fi data collection, UK data protection authorities announced that the telecom giant had not done real damage.

WASHINGTON, July 28, 2010 – Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation are worried about unclear consumer online privacy policies and the negative effects of targeted advertising. Representatives from Apple, Facebook, Google, The Cato Institute, AT&T, and the Annenberg

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.

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

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.” W

WASHINGTON, June 29, 2010 – The best way to avoid cyber bullying is not to be a teenage girl, said an expert on Tuesday at a panel discussion hosted by the Progress and Freedom Foundation. The remarks, made by Michael McKeehan, Verizon’s executive director of internet and technology policy, were in

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

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, German

WASHINGTON, June 3, 2010 – One half of European productivity growth over the last 15 years can easily be attributed to information and communications technology, according to the European Commission. The commission is hoping to continue this trend by unveiling last month the Digital Agenda for Europ

WASHINGTON, June 1, 2010 – Eircom, one of Ireland’s biggest internet service providers, will cut off access to users who have been accused of illegal file-sharing.

WASHINGTON, May 31, 2010 – A U.S. District Court in Portland, Ore., has ordered Google to turn over wireless data from its Street View cars which was taken while photographing neighborhoods.

WASHINGTON, May 7, 2010 – The United States needs to act as a world leader by using its talents to help develop an innovative global privacy framework, but it must get its own house in order to succeed, said privacy experts Friday at an event hosted by the Commerce Department.

WASHINGTON, April 26, 2010 – House Republican leaders sent a letter last week to the House speaker and chairman of the Administration Committee requesting that lawmakers be allowed to use more video conferencing software applications to communicate with constituents.

WASHINGTON, April 26, 2010 – The American Civil Liberties Union is applauding Google’s new tool that tracks and displays the number of government requests that the company receives worldwide.

WASHINGTON, April 22, 2010 – The Commerce Department is seeking public comment on the impact of privacy laws in the United States and around the world to determine if current laws serve consumer interests and democracy. It also this week announced the formation of an Internet Policy Task Force to id

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 product

WASHINGTON, April 2, 2010 – Chapter Four of the plan focuses on broadband competition and innovation policy. It’s one of the most far-reaching sections in the entire document. It starts by addressing various mobile and fixed networks and moves on to discuss specific devices, privacy and identity the

WASHINGTON, April 1, 2010 – Section Four of the plan focuses on broadband competition and innovation policy. It’s one of the most far-reaching sections in the entire 360-page document. This second article summarizing Chapter 4 looks at the FCC’s overall recommendations to enhance the nation’s broadb

WASHINGTON, April 1, 2010 – Section Four of the plan focuses on broadband competition and innovation policy. It’s one of the most far-reaching sections in the entire 360-page document. It starts by addressing various mobile and fixed networks and moves on to discuss specific devices, privacy and ide

WASHINGTON, March 15, 2010 – Blair Levin, head of the Federal Communications Commission’s national broadband plan and the “national purposes” team at the agency previewed key points from the upcoming national broadband plan. The object of the plan, they said, is not just to expand broadband network

WASHINGTON, January 19, 2010 – Communication and intellectual property experts debated whether a national broadband plan is the right vehicle for addressing copyright and network neutrality issues and whether the FCC is overstepping its bounds by dabbling with copyright issues. Public Knowledge Pre

WASHINGTON, December 9, 2009 – The ubiquity of online advertising is a product of its importance to the internet economy, said a group of consumer advocates Wednesday during a debate on the future of online advertising. But the impact of new targeted advertising methods on consumer privacy and its

The Center for Democracy & Technology this week launched a “Take Back Your Privacy” [http://www.takebackyourprivacy.org] 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

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

SAN FRANCISCO, December 1, 2009 – Technophiles and U.S. policymakers have spent decades promising the public that a ubiquitously-networked society would be a people-powered-utopia filled with useful, actionable information. President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign is the most prominent example of how

WASHINGTON, November 30, 2009 – Turkey’s government is working on a project that would give every child a designated email address at birth, according to reports coming from the country’s state news agency late Monday. Turkey is also looking to develop a homegrown Internet search engine to address g

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

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.

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.

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.

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 dur