Gross, Grant. "Groups Release Dueling Internet Freedom Declarations, ComputerWorld." July 2, 2012.
From the article: "Two groups with members who opposed controversial copyright enforcement
bills in the U.S. Congress have released competing declarations of Internet
freedom on Monday, two days before the U.S. celebrates its declaration of
independence.
One declaration, backed by Free Press, the Electronic
Frontier Foundation, the Center for Democracy and Technology and other groups,
calls for an end to Internet censorship, universal broadband access and net
neutrality principles on an Internet "where everyone is free to connect,
communicate, write, read, watch, speak, listen, learn, create and
innovate."
The second declaration, from free-market think tanks
TechFreedom, the Competitive Enterprise Institute and other groups, calls on
governments to "do no harm" to the Internet and to avoid getting
involved in the broadband marketplace. "Government is the greatest
obstacle to the emergence of fast and affordable broadband networks," the
declaration said. "Rather than subsidizing yesterday's networks, free the
market to build tomorrow's." "Read more
Shane,Scott. "Cost to Protect U.S. Secrets Doubles to Over $11 Billion." The New York Times, July 2, 2012.
From the article: "The federal government spent more than $11 billion to protect its secrets last year, double the cost of classification a decade ago — and that is only the part it will reveal. The total does not include the costs incurred by the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency and other spy agencies, whose spending is — you guessed it — classified…. The costs include investigations of people applying for security clearances, equipment like safes and special computer gear, training for government personnel, and salaries for officials who review documents for classification and declassification." Read more
Enderle, Rob. "Your life in 2020 Acording to Intel." TG Daily, June 28, 2012.
From the blog: "Another major technology player who believes and helps shape the future isIntel. …wants to alter the scenario in humanity's favor and at the head of thiseffort is Intel’s CTO Justin Rattner. Earlier this week, I had a chance to talkwith him and review a significant number of technologiescoming out of Intel’s labs designed to make the worlda better place. So let’s talk about 2020….At the core of all of these initiatives is the idea of freeing up time,giving people back their lives, and using technology to provide more time toenjoy life rather than filling up every free moment with additional technologyand management chores. So if our lives are indeed improved by 2020, it isprobably a safe bet that Intel likely had a lot to do with our brave newfuture." Read more
Rosen, Jeffrey. "The Right to Be Forgotten." The Atlantic, July 3, 2012.
From the article : "Soon, citizens around the world may have the ability to
selectively delete themselves from the Internet. At the beginning of this year,
Viviane Reding, the European commissioner for justice, fundamental rights, and
citizenship, proposed codifying a sweeping version of the right to be forgotten
in European data-protection law. The proposal is being strenuously resisted by
Facebook and by Google, which could be liable for up to 1 percent of its $37.9
billion annual income if it fails to remove photos or other data that people
post about themselves and later think better of, even if the data have been
broadly shared.
But the right to be forgotten also gives people the right to demand the
removal of embarrassing information that others post about them, regardless of
its source, unless Google or Facebook can prove to a European regulator that
the information is part of a legitimate journalistic, literary, or artistic
exercise. This would transform Facebook and Google from neutral platforms into
global censors and would clash directly with the principle, embedded in U.S.
free-speech law, that people can’t be restricted from publishing embarrassing
but truthful information." Read more
Lennighan, Mary. "Govts Not Brave Enough to Capture $1.4 Trillion Broadband Opportunity – Analyst." Total Telecom, June 21, 2012.
From the article: "Governments globally could be missing out on tax revenues worth $1.4
trillion per year as a result of their lack of action when it comes to driving
the rollout of fixed broadband networks, one analyst predicted on Thursday…. But
there is a reason that many governments are not pushing the broadband agenda,
despite the huge potential revenue increase… "A lack of knowledge and
understanding is one part," Johnson went on. The fact that returns on
investment in broadband infrastructure would likely take longer than the
average term in office for a government – five years in the U.K., for example –
also discourages government interest.
And wiring up the globe would not come cheap. It would cost around €200
billion to fibre Europe, said Johnson. "Read more
Lennett, Benjamin,Tom Glaisyer and Sascha Meinrath. Public Media Policy, Spectrum Policy, and Rethinking Public Interest Obligations for the 21st Century. New America Foundation, June 21, 2012.
From the paper. "In this paper we consider reforms and innovations in
spectrum policy that would enable and sustain an expanded public media to
better support quality news, journalism, education, arts, and civic information
in the 21st century. The Internet has remade the landscape of free expression,
access to news and information, and media production. Thus, we are well past
the moment when spectrum allocated to broadcasting could be considered as
distinct from that allocated to wireless broadband networks. Such networks serve
as primary channels for access to news and information, increasingly edging out
over-the-air broadcasting as the essential infrastructure for media
distribution." Read more
See also
Reuters. "France May Extend TV Licence Fee to Computer Screens." The Guardian, July 1, 2012.
From the article: "The French government is considering extending the television licence fee to
include computer screen owners to boost revenues for public-sector broadcasting
operations, the culture minister said on Saturday.
President François Hollande's Socialist government aims to raise an extra
€7.5bn (£6bn) this year through tax rises included in an amended budget bill to
be unveiled next week.
… The licence fee – €125 in mainland France and €80 in its overseas
territories – is used to finance public television and radio.
According to a Global TV survey in March, more than 11 million French people
watch television programmes on computer screens, tablets or smart phones, a
rise of 41% on 2011." Read more
"Cybersecurity: This House Believes That a Hyperconnected World is More Rather Than Less Secure. " The Economist, July 3, 2012.
From the debate: "The more we entwine technology in our daily lives, the more security failures seem inevitable, because many of these originate not from technology failure, but from human weaknesses and errors. A hyperconnected world only amplifies this…. The crux of Mr Day's argument is that as people become more exposed to a networked world, they will become less sophisticated about security. Are we really entering a new Dark Age in which we will become collectively dumber the more we interact with new technologies?" Read more
Greenberg, Andy. "Apple Patents Technique That Uses Cloned 'Doppelgangers' To Protect Your Privacy." Forbes, June 20, 2012.
From the article: “Apple
received a patent for what it describes as a system that clones Internet users,
gives them multiple digital identities, and uses phony attributes of those
clones to “pollute” tracking systems with false leads that protect the real
user’s privacy from “Big Brother”–or what the author of the patent describes as
the “Little Brothers” of automated network surveillance.” Read more
Begos, Kevin. "Conduct Code for Unmanned Aircraft is Unveiled." BusinessWeek, July 3, 2012.From the article: "A trade group for drone aircraft manufacturers and operators has released the industry's first code of conduct in response to growing privacy concerns.
The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International said Monday that the recommendations for "safe, non-intrusive operation" are meant to guide operators and reassure a public leery of the possibility of spy drones flying undetected over their homes.
… The new recommendations by the association, a non-profit based in Arlington, Va., that has members in more than 60 countries, pledge to "respect the privacy of individuals" and the concerns of the public and to follow all federal, state and local laws. They also pledge to ensure that remote drone pilots are properly trained and to respect "other users of the airspace."" Read more
Pilkington, Ed. "Twitter Releases Data on Government Requests for User Information." The Guardian, July 2, 2012.
From the article: "Almost 80% of all requests made to Twitter for information on its users to be released in the course of criminal investigations or other probes are made by the US government, the micro-blogging website has revealed in its first transparency report.
Following in Google's wake, Twitter has released for the first time data on government requests for user information. The table shows that the US government is significantly more interventionist in terms of the number of times it has asked Twitter to hand over information than any other government in the world.
From 1 January 2012, the US made 679 user information requests out of a total of 849, compared with 98 requests from the Japanese government, 11 each from the Canadian and British governments and under 10 for a slew of other countries." Read more
See also
Williams, Matt. "Twitter Forced to Release Occupy Protester's Tweets to New York Court." The Guardian, July 2, 2012.
From the article: "Twenty years ago U.S. healthcare cost $2800, on average, per person. Ten years ago, that figure had risen to $4700 per person. And four years ago, in 2008, it was $7500 per person. (From exhibit 4A in this Kaiser Family Foundation Report.) Over the same period, the portion of Americans without insurance has risen. In 1990, 14.1 percent of Americans were uninsured. In 2000, 13.1 percent were uninsured. Today, 16.3% of Americans are uninsured (approximately 50 million people), in part because of job losses and employers cutting back on coverage.
At the same time the number of uninsured has risen, there have been stunning innovations in healthcare. …We’ll need to constantly remind ourselves of the public good when it comes to healthcare innovation… all innovation, really. As I look down the road 5, 10, 20 years, I see healthcare becoming bifurcated between not only today’s haves and have-nots, but between people who can afford more expensive advanced technologies and life-saving approaches. …I’m afraid that as technological innovation accelerates, we will see not a diminishment of health disparities, but an increase." Read more
Wladawsky-Berger, Irving. "CIOs Will Help Manage ‘Digital Common Law’." The Wall Street Journal, June 24, 2012.
From the report: "For the past few hundred years, governments around the world
have developed laws, policies and practices to help us better get along with
each other as we conduct the many transactions and interactions that are part
of our everyday lives. But, as Internet and digital technologies are
increasingly integrated into just about all aspects of our lives, the laws,
policies and institutions we developed for the physical world are way too
impractical for our fast moving, fast changing digital world. We must
somehow bring with us and adapt our policies and regulations from the physical
to the digital world…. We don’t really have a choice. As more and more of
our critical assets are captured digitally, including medical records and
financial transactions, the laws and principles governing their use must
move to the digital realm as well. There is no
way for our present system to keep up with the required volumes and response
times." Read more
Tasker, Katy. "We Stand for a Free and Open Internet: The Declaration of Internet Rights." Public Knowledge, July 2, 2012.
From the blog: "Public Knowledge is excited to be part of the 91 organizations and 38
influencers signing on to the Declaration of Internet Freedom,
which launched today.
As Cory Doctorow succinctly put it, “There is
no copyright policy, only Internet policy; there is no Internet policy, only
policy.” Today’s focus on increased IP enforcement will have a dramatic impact
on the way people interact with the most democratic communications platform
that has ever existed: the internet. Disproportionate IP enforcement will
stifle creativity and create gatekeepers that block the free flow of
information online.
We need only look so far as this January’s SOPA/PIPA protests to
see this materialize. The enormous outpouring of opposition—to bills that would
have seriously encroached on people’s right online—served as a strong signal to
policymakers that they can no longer pass draconian copyright legislation at
the behest of industry." Read more
Knibbs, Katie. "Big Data and the Death of Internet Privacy." Mobiledia, June 25, 2012.From the article: "Big data is a big deal, illuminating and predicting societal and economic trends -- but its all-consuming, comprehensive nature may obliterate privacy as it is understood today.
With companies competing to suck in and analyze data at an astonishing pace, the burgeoning world of data collection builds insights into Internet-user behavior, but this deep analysis mines even the most personal particulars of user actions.
Beyond sussing out larger societal and economic patterns, big data can assemble information into an intimate picture of the people it relies on for raw data.
…. Bottom line: big data, particularly personal data analysis, is eroding privacy. Without significant policy changes from governments and major sites like Google and Facebook, this is the way the Internet, and society at large, is headed." Read more
Temple, James. "Web Privacy Census Shows Tracking." San Fransisco Chronicle, June 26, 2012.
From the article. "UC Berkeley researchers will unveil a first-of-its-kind tool Tuesday for measuring online tracking of consumers over time. The team has established the Web Privacy Census, a process for surveying top websites each quarter to evaluate the amount and kind of monitoring under way. The goal is to create benchmarks to accurately evaluate the shifting methods of Internet marketers, ideally enabling a better informed debate over privacy policy. The census primarily serves as a baseline for comparison with future surveys. But even on its own, the report highlights the almost dizzying amount of online tracking that occurs. Internet marketers frequently place tracking cookies and similar software onto consumers' computers to observe their online behavior for the purpose of targeting ads and content." Read more
See also
Manos, Diana. "CCHIT Urges Private-Public Partnership to Govern the NwHIN." Healthcare IT News, June 27, 2012.
According to Karen Bell, MD,
chair of CCHIT and former director of the Office of the National Coordinator
for Health Information Technology (ONC), Office of Health Information
Technology Adoption, governance of the NwHIN would need stakeholders from all
angles of the project, including public health officials, providers, consumers
and even third party users outside of the federal government." Read more
See also
CCHIT website. CCHIT Public Comment on ONC’s NwHIN Governance Request for Information, June 25, 2012.
Zamosky, Lisa. "Patients Go Online for Health Data but Afraid To Share What They Know." iHealthBeat, June 26, 2012.
From the article article: "Access to online health care information is growing, as is
patients' interest in taking an active role in their medical care. However,
progress toward doctors and patients working together to plan treatment may not
be moving quite as fast. Many patients, it seems, avoid asking questions or
sharing information they have found online for fear of angering their
physicians. …Among the more common complaints both patients and doctors
have about today's medical consultations is that they're short on time. That might
account in part for patients' tendency to turn to the Internet.
"Doctors don't have a lot of time to spend with patients anymore and so
patients are going online and looking for information," Sabee said.
According to Luks, however, when doctors take an active role in developing
an online presence and making evidence-based information widely available to
patients online, they not only improve patient care, but they also can improve
their own medical practice. " Read more
Rosen, Rebecca. "59% of Young People Say the Internet Is Shaping Who They Are. "The Atlantic, June 27, 2012.
From the article: "In the new survey,
commissioned by The Atlantic and The Aspen Institute and conducted by Penn
Schoen Berland and Associates, we can see some hints of what this early
generation of Internet users looks like, vis-a-vis that very technology
that they've grown up on, and also with regard to questions of values that cut
to the core of what America will look like in the years ahead.Most younger
people say that the Internet is shaping who they are. On a question that asked
people to rank different sources of influence on their sense of right and
wrong, 59 percent of people ages 18 to 29 said that social media or the Internet
had a "great deal" or a "fair amount" of influence.
Fascinatingly, 38 percent of Americans older than 65 said the same.
…If you dig into the numbers a bit further the picture gets a little more
complicated. Both groups say in equal number (47 percent) that they do not
expect privacy. The difference comes from a large group of older Americans (14
percent) who say they don't know. So the two groups are equally distrusting,
and older Americans just have less well-formed opinions, which makes sense given
that they use these sites much less.
A similar pattern appears in response to a question about whether
respondents approve or disapprove of tracking from websites: A far greater
proportion of younger Americans approve of this behavior (40 percent) than older
Americans (18 percent), but the percent who disapprove is similar (58 versus
62, respectively). Again the gap comes from a sizable chunk of the 65+ group
who say they don't know (20 percent). " Read more
Fischer, Eric, A. Federal Laws Relating to Cybersecurity: Discussion of Proposed Revisions, a report prepared by the Congressional Research Service, June 29, 2012.
From the report: "For more than a decade, various experts have expressed increasing concerns about cybersecurity, in light of the growing frequency, impact, and sophistication of attacks on information systems in the United States and abroad. Consensus has also been building that the current legislative framework for cybersecurity might need to be revised.
The complex federal role in cybersecurity involves both securing federal systems and assisting in protecting nonfederal systems. Under current law, all federal agencies have cybersecurity responsibilities relating to their own systems, and many have sector-specific responsibilities for critical infrastructure. More than 50 statutes address various aspects of cybersecurity either directly or indirectly, but there is no overarching framework legislation in place. While revisions to most of those laws have been proposed over the past few years, no major cybersecurity legislation has been enacted since 2002.
Recent legislative proposals, including many bills introduced in the 111th and 112th Congresses, have focused largely on issues in 10 broad areas…" Read more
Alter, Alexandra. "Your E-Book Is Reading You." The Wall Street Journal, June 29, 2012.
From the article: "In the past, publishers and authors had no way of knowing
what happens when a reader sits down with a book. Does the reader quit after
three pages, or finish it in a single sitting? Do most readers skip over the
introduction, or read it closely, underlining passages and scrawling notes in
the margins? Now, e-books are providing a glimpse into the story behind the
sales figures, revealing not only how many people buy particular books, but how
intensely they read them.
For centuries, reading has largely been a solitary and private act, an
intimate exchange between the reader and the words on the page. But the rise of
digital books has prompted a profound shift in the way we read, transforming
the activity into something measurable and quasi-public.
The major new players in e-book publishing—Amazon, Apple and Google—can
easily track how far readers are getting in books, how long they spend reading
them and which search terms they use to find books." Read more
Quitney Anderson, Janna and Lee Rainie. Imagining the Internet, a report prepared by the Pew Research Center, June 29, 2012.
From the report: "By 2020, experts think tech-enhanced homes, appliances, and utilities will spread, but many of the analysts believe we still won’t likely be living in the long-envisioned ‘Homes of the Future.’ Hundreds of tech analysts foresee a future with “smart” devices and environments that make people’s lives more efficient. But they also note that current evidence about the uptake of smart systems is that the costs and necessary infrastructure changes to make it all work are daunting. And they add that people find comfort in the familiar, simple, “dumb” systems to which they are accustomed. Some 1,021 Internet experts, researchers, observers, and critics were asked about the “home of the future” in an online, opt-in survey. The result was a fairly even split between those who agreed that energy- and money-saving “smart systems” will be significantly closer to reality in people’s homes by 2020 and those who said such homes will still remain a marketing mirage." Read more
Mak, Chantal. "Fundamental Rights and Digital Content Contracts" (June 8, 2012). Amsterdam Law School Research Paper, No. 2012-67; Centre for the Study of European Contract Law Working Paper Series No. 2012-06.
From the paper: "This paper provides an overview of the ways in which (consumer) contract law may contribute to the protection of fundamental rights of digital consumers. The distribution and consumption of digital content can touch upon or even conflict with the exercise of fundamental freedoms of consumers, such as the right to privacy or the right to freedom of expression. The paper considers the effects of fundamental rights (such as the protection of privacy, freedom of expression, the right to receive information) on questions concerning the validity of digital content contracts and standard terms. Furthermore, it investigates to what extent fundamental rights (such as non-discrimination, Article 21 EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, and access to services of general economic interest, Article 36 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights) may strengthen the legal framework for guaranteeing consumer access to digital content." Read more
Ko, Haksoo. "Law and Technology of Data Privacy: A Case for International Harmonization." June 13, 2012. From the paper: "Data crosses national borders routinely. And any regulation on data privacy by an individual national authority could easily have ramifications beyond its jurisdictional boundary. This article lays out some of the relevant issues and provides an argument for international coordination and harmonization. With technological advances, various methods are employed and will continue to be employed to gather information on users. Also, as more user information becomes available without having to incur much cost, companies engage in highly sophisticated data analytics. In response to these developments, authorities in individual countries and regions have put forward reform proposals and discussions are under way. The current framework of addressing data privacy issues at a country level or at a regional level, however, has a risk of splintering the overall regulatory and enforcement regime at the global level. This article examines economic incentives of individual authorities when making policy decisions and shows that there is a systematic risk of over-regulation or under-regulation. The article then discusses possible options for international coordination and harmonization. "Read more
Ozer, Nicole. "Putting Online Privacy Above the Fold: Building a Social Movement and Creating Corporate Change." (June 5, 2012). New York University Review of Law & Social Change, Vol. 36, 2012.
From the abstract: "Online privacy issues are now “above the fold,” both literally and figuratively. Consumers, companies, and policymakers increasingly think about collection and control of personal information, and the media prominently highlights these issues. But there is very little scholarship that reflects on
the factors that have contributed to this recent increase in attention. And
there is a dearth of scholarship that specifically analyzes how privacy
advocates have started to face and overcome the challenges typical to building
and sustaining any type of social movement, as well as challenges that make
collective action around privacy issues particularly difficult, such as
informational disparities and behavioral tendencies. This article provides a
behind-the-scenes analysis of how recent factors have enabled the privacy
community to create the climate necessary for a social movement to start to
coalesce — a movement that can keep issues of online privacy above the fold in
sustained ways and support real online privacy reform. The article assesses two
recent privacy incidents, and it highlights how the privacy community has been
able to mobilize—based on these incidents — to move beyond piecemeal responses
and start to build a social movement and influence corporate change. Finally,
the article identifies remaining obstacles that must be overcome for the
movement to be successful and suggests a focus for legal and policy work to
meet these challenges." Read more
