Press release, June 7, 2005, Cornyn, Leahy Call For Greater TransparencyIn Congressional FOIA Exemption Attempts -Congress should not establish new secrecy provisions through secret means: “U.S. Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) introduced bipartisan legislation Tuesday to ensure greater openness in the legislative process. The bill creates additional legislative transparency by requiring that… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: June 2005
Advocacy Group Files Comments on FEC’s Proposed Regulation of Internet Speech
Follow-up to several postings on the FEC and bloggers (here, here, and here), news today from the Center for Democracy and Policy: “In two sets of comments filed today with the Federal Election Commission, CDT urged the FEC to declare that the online political speech of bloggers and other ordinary citizens is exempt from the… Continue Reading
Google’s Beta “Collaborative Crawling System”
“Google Sitemaps is an experiment in web crawling. Using Sitemaps to inform and direct our crawlers, we hope to expand our coverage of the web and improve the time to inclusion in our index. By placing a Sitemap-formatted file on your webserver, you enable our crawlers to find out what pages are present and which… Continue Reading
Collection of Watergate Papers Will Now Include “Deep Throat” Documents
As a follow-up to my February 4, 2005 posting, Woodward and Bernstein Watergate Papers Now Available to Public, news today that this week’s revelation about “Deep Throat” will result in an expansion of the collection purchased and maintained by the University of Texas at Austin’s Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center. Related reference: Press release from… Continue Reading
Privacy Concerns Focus on Google’s Retention of Internet Activity Data
Reuters reports, via CNN, Google’s long memory stirs privacy concerns. Continue Reading
IG for Tax Administration Releases Report on FOIA Compliance
Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration report, May 26, 2005: Some Improvements Have Been Made to Better Comply With Freedom of Information Act Requirements “This report presents the results of our Fiscal Year (FY) 2005 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) review. The overall objective of this audit was to determine whether the Internal Revenue Service… Continue Reading
HHS Releases Report on Nationwide Health Information Exchange
Largest Compilation of Private-Sector Comments on Nationwide Interoperable Health Information Exchange to Date: “The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services today released a report summarizing over 500 responses from individuals and private industry on interoperable health information exchange. The report, Summary of Nationwide Health Information Network Request for Information Responses, is a compilation of… Continue Reading
Updated CRS Report on Broadcast Flag
Updated May 11, 2005, Copyright Protection of Digital Television: The Broadcast Flag: “This report addresses the adoption of a broadcast flag system by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to protect digital television (DTV) broadcasts from unauthorized redistribution. The report also addresses the recent decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of… Continue Reading
Annenburg Public Policy Center Report on Dangers of Online Shopping
Open to Exploitation: American Shoppers Online and Offline – “Sixty-four percent of American adults do not know that it is legal for online stores to charge different people different prices at the same time of day for the same product. This groundbreaking new study (38 pages, PDF) explores this and many other shopping facts that… Continue Reading
Pressure To Regulate Data Brokers Fueled By Continued Scams and Threats
Two articles worth reading on state and federal efforts to regulate data brokers in response to the continuing cascade of system breaches, thefts, loss of tapes/drives, and leaks resulting in the release of sensitive personal data: from the Washington Post (reg. req’d), States Keep Watchful Eye on Personal-Data Firms, and from PC World, Policing Information… Continue Reading
Corporate Litigator In Spotlight With Watergate Revelation
WSJ free feature today: How a Lawyer Finally Unveiled ‘Deep Throat’ Related reference: Identity of Watergate Confidential Source Revealed After 30 Years Continue Reading
Free Credit Reports Now Available to Residents of 11 More States
From EPIC, June 1, 2005: “Today, residents of eleven southern states can gain access to a free copy of their credit report from all three of the big consumer reporting agencies by visiting annualcreditreport.com or by calling 1-877-322-8228.” Continue Reading
