In a speech this week at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, White House Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Internet Policy Daniel Weitzner announced that the Administration will soon roll out a “privacy bill of rights,” which he described as a “broad, high-level statement of principles” that could be enforced by the FTC. Weitzner emphasized that … Continue Reading
Last week, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released for public comment a draft roadmap for implementing cloud computing technology across U.S. government agencies. The roadmap is intended to foster adoption of cloud computing by federal agencies, reduce uncertainty surrounding cloud computing by improving the information available to policymakers, and facilitate … Continue Reading
Your company has just launched an innovative new social media service, and you’ve received fanfare from the press, increased website traffic, and a spike in advertising revenues. In short, the service is a complete success — until you’re served with a class action complaint seeking millions of dollars in damages and a civil investigative demand … Continue Reading
Jon Leibowitz, chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, and Cameron Kerry, general counsel of the Department of Commerce, spoke today about the need for industry codes of conduct to address emerging privacy issues. They were the featured speakers at an event held by the Brookings Institution on strategies to protect consumer privacy while ensuring continued … Continue Reading
As we previously discussed, the House Energy & Commerce Committee announced last month that it would be undertaking a comprehensive review of electronic privacy concerns. That process will kick off on July 14, 2011 with a joint hearing by the Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade Subcommittee and the Communications and Technology Subcommittee. Regulators from the Federal … Continue Reading
by Katie Keith On June 16, 2011, the United States Chamber of Commerce organized a forum for business leaders addressing challenges to the free flow of electronic commercial information. Panelists included academics, government officials, and policy and privacy directors from Google, AT&T, GE, Citigroup, and IBM. The event was moderated by leaders from the Commerce … Continue Reading
The Commerce Department is calling for the creation of nationally recognized, voluntary codes of conduct to help strengthen cybersecurity protections for online businesses. The Department issued its recommendations in a green paper on “Cybersecurity, Innovation and the Internet Economy,” which was released on June 8, 2011. As noted in today’s Federal Register, the Department will … Continue Reading
As expected, this year is shaping up to be a busy year on privacy. As we noted in an earlier post, many Congressional members on both sides of the aisle are focusing on privacy issues. We still expect Senator Kerry to introduce comprehensive privacy legislation in the next few weeks and we understand Senator Pryor … Continue Reading
It is no surprise that the 97 comments filed in response to the Department of Commerce’s Green Paper on “Commercial Data Privacy and Innovation in the Internet Economy: A Dynamic Policy Framework” take a range of positions on issues such as the need for federal privacy legislation, the relevance of the Fair Information Practice Principles (FIPPs), … Continue Reading