Press release (PDF): Satisfaction With E-Government Stalls in Latest Findings From American Customer Service Index. Link to E-Gov Scores, March 2005 (Excel): MedlinePlus Main Website remains user favorite. Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: March 2005
Controversy Surrounds Government Sponsored News
White House Defends Video News Releases Under Bush, a New Age of Prepackaged TV News Related reference: GAO Report: Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP)–Video News Release, B-303495, January 4, 2005: “By its own records, ONDCP’s prepackaged news stories reached more than 22 million households, without disclosing to any of those viewers — the… Continue Reading
More FOIA Resources for Sunshine Week
Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security hearing, Openness in Government and Freedom of Information: Examining the OPEN Government Act of 2005, March 15, 2005. Includes links to testimony and member statements (HTML format) Sen. John Cornyn’s (RTexas) speech on bipartisan bill to promote openness in government Arbiter would ease FOIA disputes, experts say ‘Strange… Continue Reading
GAO Report on Management and Oversight of E-Rate Program
Released today by the GAO: Telecommunications: Greater Involvement Needed by FCC in the Management and Oversight of the E-Rate Program. GAO-05-151, February 9. Highlights. See also GAO Report: E-rate Mismanagement Continues Unabated – Barton to Accelerate Legislative Plans in Light of Findings Continue Reading
FOIA Letter Regarding Exclusion of Foreign Nationals
Press release: “ACLU Seeks Records on Use of Patriot Act to Deny U.S. Entry to Prominent Foreign Scholars – Citing a serious and growing threat to academic freedom, the American Civil Liberties Union today filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for records concerning the governments practice of excluding scholars and other prominent individuals… Continue Reading
LexisNexis Launches Privacy Facts Website
“LexisNexis has created a Web site with helpful information regarding data privacy at http://privacyfacts.lexisnexis.com.” Related news: Kurt Sanford, President and CEO of LexisNexis Corporate and Federal Markets stated during his testimony today to the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection Committee that: “LexisNexis plans to further restrict access to such sensitive information as… Continue Reading
House Hearing on Protecting Consumer’s Data
Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection hearing today on Protecting Consumer’s Data: Policy Issues Raised by Choice Point. Prepared Testimony (PDF) is available from the following: Deborah Platt Majoras, Chairman, Federal Trade Commission; Kurt P. Sanford , President and CEO, U.S. Corporate and Federal Government Markets, LexisNexis; Derek Smith, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer,… Continue Reading
Digitizing Health Records One Person At A Time
This Washington Post (reg. req’d) article reviews how individuals are using fee-based services that digitize their personal medical records as a way to manage uniform access to them in the event of medical emergencies and to facilitate the process of diagnostic evaluations. This may forecast a near term future of non-standard applications that fill the… Continue Reading
Report on the State of the American News Media
The Project for Excellence in Journalism has published the State of the News Media 2005 report (navigate the contents of the 500 plus pages via this link) which reviews two distinct categories of media: the first is identified as text-based media, and includes newspapers and Internet news sites; the second is electronic media, inclusive of… Continue Reading
FTC Takes Action Against Company Making Deceptive Claims About Antispyware Program
FTC Bars Bogus Anti-Spyware Claims “An operation that offered consumers free spyware detection scans that “detected” spyware even if there was not any, to market anti-spyware software that does not work has been barred from making deceptive claims by a U. S. District court at the request of the FTC. The FTC will seek a… Continue Reading
ID Theft Scams Provoke Deeper Investigation of Data Collection Services and Targeted Consequences
Two articles worth reading from The Los Angeles Times (reg. req’d): from today’s paper, this one examines the remarkably straighforward, low-tech tools (including fax machines and Wite-out) and methods that have been successfully used to carry out ID theft scams. and from yesterday’s edition, Did ChoicePoint End Run Backfire? The data-collecting company has managed to… Continue Reading
Report Recommends Regulatory Reforms to Balance Document Security and Public Access
The University of Maryland Center for Public Policy and Private Enterprise announced the availablity of a report, The Unintended Audience: Balancing Openness and Secrecy – Crafting an Information Policy for the 21st Century (76 pages, PDF), that addresses post 9/11 limitations on public access to unclassified but “sensitive” government documents, and the associated impact of… Continue Reading
