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Daily Archives: April 8, 2010

Three Groups Urge FTC to Investigate “Wild West” of Online Data Collection

News release: “Three consumer protection organizations on Thursday filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), demanding the commission investigate growing privacy threats in the “Wild West” online. The U.S. Public Interest Research Group, the Center for Digital Democracy and the World Privacy Forum challenged the commission to investigate the growing privacy threats to consumers from the practices conducted by the real-time data-targeting auction and exchange online marketplace. Increasingly and largely unknown to the public, technologies enabling the real-time profiling, targeting, and auctioning of consumers is becoming commonplace. Adding to the privacy threat, explains the new complaint, is the incorporation and expanding role of an array of outside data sources for sale online that provide detailed information on a consumer.”

National Security Archive: "Prague Treaty Cuts Are Modest, Real"

The Nuclear Vault: Resources from the National Security Archive’s Nuclear Weapons Documentation Project How Much is Enough? Part II “Prague Treaty Cuts Are Modest, Real” Old Cold War Proposals Went Even Lower, Thomas Blanton and William Burr, editors, April 8, 2010: “he new START Treaty signed today in Prague represents “real” but “modest” cuts in… Continue Reading

New GAO Reports: All-Terrain Vehicles, American Samoa and Northern Mariana Islands, Nuclear Weapons

All-Terrain Vehicles: How They Are Used, Crashes, and Sales of Adult-Sized Vehicles for Children’s Use, GAO-10-418, April 08, 2010 American Samoa and Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands: Wages, Employment, Employer Actions, Earnings, and Worker Views Since Minimum Wage Increases Began, GAO-10-333, April 08, 2010 Nuclear Weapons: Actions Needed to Address Scientific and Technical Challenges… Continue Reading

Open Government Plans Offer New Channels to Communicate With Citizens

It’s official: Twitter isn’t Government Paperwork, by Heather West, April 7, 2010 – “As part of the 120 day deadlines in the Open Government Directive, OMB just released several sets of guidance for agencies in how they use new tools like social media or wikis. Currently, there’s a burdensome process for agencies who want to… Continue Reading

BIS: The future of public debt: prospects and implications

The future of public debt: prospects and implications, by Stephen Cecchetti, Madhusudan Mohanty and Fabrizio Zampolli, Working Papers No 300, March 2010 “Since the start of the financial crisis, industrial country public debt levels have increased dramatically. And they are set to continue rising for the foreseeable future. A number of countries face the prospect… Continue Reading