As cyber week continues in Washington, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler traveled to the west coast to speak about cybersecurity at the RSA Conference in San Francisco. Wheeler noted that the FCC has several charges to protect against cyber-attacks and similar threats, including the agency’s responsibility to protect the safety of communications networks generally,… Continue Reading
Tag Archives: Congress
Congress Moves Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity Bill
Posted in Cybersecurity, LegislationOn Wednesday, the House Homeland Security Committee passed a substitute bill for H.R. 3696, the National Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Protection Act of 2013. The committee substitute bill was broadly supported by both parties. As it presently stands, H.R. 3696 delegates to the Department of Homeland Security the responsibility for civilian cybersecurity research and development, incident detection… Continue Reading
Data Brokers Under Scrutiny
Posted in Legislation, Privacy RegulationThe Senate Commerce Committee released this morning its majority staff report, A Review of the Data Broker Industry: Collection, Use, and Sale of Consumer Data for Marketing Purposes, on the practices data brokers use to collect and sell personal information of consumers and how those practices affect the privacy of hundreds of millions of Americans. … Continue Reading
On the Sixth Day of Privacy, the Congress Gave to Me…..
Posted in Cybersecurity, Privacy RegulationNot much……perhaps we should send them a box of coal. So, we look ahead….. Written by Jonathan T. Cain, CIPP/G If you believe that Congress does best when it does least, then 2013 was an outstanding year – at least as far as privacy and data protection are concerned. Out of the dozen or so… Continue Reading
Cybersecurity and Privacy Issues in the Lame Duck and 113th Congress
Posted in Legislation, Privacy RegulationWith a victory in last week’s election for President Obama, there is an increased chance for an Executive Order on Cybersecurity before the end of the year. Our colleagues at ML Strategies have published a post-election analysis of telecommunications issues, including cybersecurity and privacy and that analysis is available here – ML Strategies Legislative Alert… Continue Reading
Longer may not always be better: Congressmen question Facebook’s prolix privacy policy
Posted in Privacy RegulationFollowing on the heels of Facebook’s landmark settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, a bipartisan group of members of the House of Representatives has apparently read the “new and improved” Facebook privacy policy and were not impressed. Reps. Cliff Stearns (R-FL), Ed Markey (D-MA), Joe Barton (R-TX), and Diana DeGette (D-CO), sent a letter to Facebook CEO Mark… Continue Reading
Federal Data Security Legislation Update: House Subcommittee Approves SAFE Data Act
Posted in UncategorizedWritten by Julie Babayan The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade has approved a data security bill by a voice vote, moving it to the full Energy and Commerce Committee for consideration. The Secure and Fortify Electronic Data (“SAFE Data”) Act would establish national rules for securing data containing personal information,… Continue Reading
Summary of Pending Omnibus Privacy Legislation
Posted in UncategorizedGiven that there are several sets of pending privacy legislation, here is a comparison for easy reference. Side-by-Side Comparison of Privacy Bills
“Do-Not-Track” Bill Introduced in US Senate
Posted in UncategorizedWe now have proposed “do-not-track” legislation in both the U.S. House of Representatives and in the U.S. Senate. Representative Jackie Speier (D-CA) introduced the Do Not Track Me Online Act in February, and yesterday, Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) introduced the “Do-Not-Track Online Act 0f 2011″. Senator Rockefeller is the Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee. Senator Rockefeller’s… Continue Reading
Apple: Update on Lawmaker Interest in Mobile Device Tracking
Posted in UncategorizedWritten by Julie Babayan An update of our continuing posts (here and here) on the grilling that Apple and Google are getting over collection of location information by mobile devices: Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) has added his voice to those of other lawmakers like Congressman Ed Markey (D-MA) who are concerned over reports… Continue Reading
UPDATE: Sony PlayStation Network Breach Prompts Plan to Introduce Consumer Protection Legislation
Posted in UncategorizedThere are many articles (see links below) being written and blogged today regarding the PSN breach. The Hill reports this afternoon that Representative Mary Bono Mack (R-CA) has announced a plan to introduce legislation to protect online consumer information. Bono Mack, as Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Trade Subcommittee, said that they will be investigating… Continue Reading
Update on Apple Location-Gathering Kerfuffle
Posted in UncategorizedApple has published a Q&A document to educate consumers on the back story relating to collection of location data. Wired has just published an excellent summary of the Apple Q&A and the issues.
Lawmakers Scrutinize Mobile Phone Location Tracking Practices
Posted in UncategorizedWritten by Julie Babayan Lawmakers including Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy Chairman Al Franken (D-MN) and House Bi-Partisan Privacy Caucus Co-Chairman Ed Markey (D-MA) are scrutinizing Apple Inc.’s and Google Inc.’s practices of tracking users’ location information through their mobile phones. Franken will preside over a hearing next month entitled “Protecting Mobile Privacy: Your Smartphones,… Continue Reading
Update: Representative Cliff Stearns (R-FL) gets into the privacy legislation act
Posted in UncategorizedTech Daily Dose reports on the House of Representatives’ entry into the federal privacy legislation act. The Consumer Privacy Protection Act of 2011 specifically would: • Require covered entities to notify consumers that their personally identifiable information as defined in the bill may be used for a purpose unrelated to the transaction. • Require entities to… Continue Reading
House scheduled to act today on several privacy bills
Posted in Data Compliance & SecurityThe House is scheduled to vote on HR 1319, The Informed P2P User Act, and HR 2221, The Data Accountability and Trust Act, tomorrow under suspension of the rules. We will monitor the debate and keep you updated on its passage.
Congress to Bring “Law and Order” to the Internet??
Posted in Online AdvertisingIn February, the Federal Trade Commission released its report on behavioral advertising “guidelines,” with strong suggestion over the recent weeks from Commissioner Jon Liebowitz that without significant self-regulation, the online advertising industry could see regulation or legislation. We discussed the FTC report at that time here. Yesterday, two House committees came together to look at privacy… Continue Reading
