By David | Published: September 30, 2004
“In what appears to be a reaction to last-minute pressure from opponents of a file-swapping bill, a U.S. Senate committee postponed a vote scheduled for Thursday [on the Induce Act...]” SOURCE: CNET News.com NOTE: Additional information at Internetnews.com
By David | Published: September 30, 2004
“The U.S. House of Representatives today [Sept. 29] passed H.R. 4077, the Piracy Deterrence and Education Act of 2004, by voice vote after having placed it on the suspension calendar. The Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) regrets that the House acted in such haste to pass what is a controversial piece of legislation without [...]
By David | Published: September 29, 2004
“Rep. Adam Putnam [R-FL], the force behind much of Congress’ oversight of federal IT during the last two years, is moving from the House Government Reform Committee to the Rules Committee effective today. Putnam will take the place of Rep. Porter J. Goss, another Florida Republican, who left the committee and his Hill office last [...]
By David | Published: September 28, 2004
“Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation Monday that will bar the use of electronic voting machines that don’t produce paper trails to verify votes. The requirement, which takes effect in 2006, is a response to concerns that the machines could be tampered with or produce incorrect results [...]” SOURCE: AP (via SiliconValley.com)
By David | Published: September 28, 2004
Cites Risks of Computer-based Systems Seeking to improve the security, accessibility, and public confidence in the voting process, ACM’s elected leadership has approved a public statement on the deployment and use of computer-based electronic voting (e-voting) systems for public elections. ACM’s position is that while computer-based e-voting systems have the potential to improve the electoral [...]
By David | Published: September 28, 2004
“CD burners, jukebox programs and Wi-Fi routers are just a few of the technologies that could be threatened under a new version of the Induce Act, critics say. Like the first version of the controversial bill — which is championed by the music and movie industries — the latest language says that a company that [...]
By David | Published: September 27, 2004
“The nation’s oldest conservative group has become the latest and most vocal critic of an anti-file-swapping bill that foes say could target products like Apple Computer’s iPod. The American Conservative Union (ACU), which holds influential Republican activists and former senators on its board of directors, is running newspaper and magazine advertisements that take a humorous [...]
By David | Published: September 27, 2004
“[...] A partial answer to the other question is that some basic international requirements for a fair election are missing in Florida. The most significant of these requirements are: [...] • Uniformity in voting procedures, so that all citizens, regardless of their social or financial status, have equal assurance that their votes are cast in [...]
By David | Published: September 23, 2004
“The Election Assistance Commission Technical Guidelines Development Committee asked EPIC to offer testimony (pdf) on the impact that new voting technology and polling place practices has on the privacy rights of voters. The hearing was an opportunity for the committee charged with making recommendations on voluntary standards for election systems and voting technology [...]” SOURCE: [...]
By David | Published: September 23, 2004
“Roughly a third of the votes cast in the November presidential election will be made on controversial paperless electronic voting machines, but as any political analyst can tell you, the only votes that will matter a great deal will be cast in a handful of swing states. And just as the Kerry and Bush campaigns [...]
By David | Published: September 23, 2004
“Earlier this week, CCIA sent a letter to Undersecretary Philip Bond asking the Department of Commerce to discuss the Induce Act legislation with the Senate Judiciary Committee. Under the bill, any device that may be capable of infringement can be considered unlawful and its manufacturers held liable. The legislation is an inappropriate measure designed to [...]
By David | Published: September 22, 2004
“The federal government said yesterday that it will order airlines to turn over millions of passenger records by November so it can begin testing a vast computer program that will hunt for suspected terrorists seeking to board commercial aircraft. The proposed program, known as Secure Flight, is the government’s latest attempt to create an effective [...]
By David | Published: September 21, 2004
“James Foley is worried. As chairman of the Computing Research Association–a group made up of academic departments, research centers and professional societies–his job at CRA is to improve computing research and education. But Foley sees troubling trends in the nation’s system for nurturing and training new information technology scientists [...]” SOURCE: CNET News.com
By David | Published: September 20, 2004
“Just over six weeks before the nation holds the first general election in which touch-screen voting will play a major role, specialists agree that whatever the remaining questions about the technology’s readiness, it is now too late to make any significant changes. Whether or not the machines are ready for the election – or the [...]
By David | Published: September 17, 2004
USACM has joined a broad coalition of stakeholders (including IEEE-USA, the American Association of Universities, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and numerous IT companies) in sending a letter to the U.S. Senate concerning the Induce Act (S. 2560). USACM continues to be troubled that the proposal’s flawed approach of restricting technology rather than focusing on [...]
By David | Published: September 16, 2004
California-based Privacy Rights Clearinghouse and the World Privacy Forum sent a letter to California’s governor urging him to veto a piece of pending spyware legislation (S.B. 1436). SOURCE: Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
By David | Published: September 16, 2004
“An international conference opened Wednesday amid warnings that companies, governments and individuals are increasingly vulnerable to Internet attacks by terrorists, hackers and others that rob them of privacy, money, and secrets. The aim of the three-day Council of Europe meeting in Strasbourg, France, is to get governments worldwide to accelerate ratification of the council’s 2001 [...]
By David | Published: September 16, 2004
“OECD countries have set up a task force to marshal the efforts of government, business and civil society in the most comprehensive, strategic and inclusive response to date to the problems posed by unsolicited e-mail messages, or spam. Spam undermines user trust online, reduces productivity, spreads computer viruses and increases costs for all parties, and [...]
By David | Published: September 15, 2004
“Northwest Airlines did not violate its own privacy policy and did not mislead customers when it shared passenger records with the government as part of a secret airline security project after the terrorist attacks in 2001, the Department of Transportation has ruled. The department dismissed a complaint filed this year by a Washington privacy rights [...]
By David | Published: September 13, 2004
“Privacy International [PI] and European Digital Rights [EDRI] have published their joint answer to the consultation on mandatory data retention. The Directorate Generals on Information Society and on Justice and Home Affairs from the European Commission asked for public comments on a proposed retention regime across Europe between 12 and 36 months for all traffic [...]
By David | Published: September 13, 2004
“Alarmed by software glitches, security threats and computer crashes with ATM-like voting machines, officials from Washington, D.C., to California are considering an alternative from an unlikely place: Nevada. Silver State voters cast electronic ballots Tuesday on a $9.3 million voting system with more than 2,600 computers and printers in every county. The primary was free [...]
By David | Published: September 13, 2004
“Australia appears ready to adopt U.S-style copyright laws, courtesy of a Free Trade Agreement deal negotiated between the two countries. But the agreement has some Australian civil liberties advocates and lawyers crying foul. They say it’s nothing more than a money-grab by the powerful U.S. copyright owners lobby, and claim the Australian government has sold [...]
By David | Published: September 10, 2004
“Government and industry officials butted heads Wednesday over whether a 10-year-old law governing electronic surveillance is working — and whether industries are meeting their obligations to help authorities catch criminals and terrorists in the internet age. Lawmakers are considering whether to update the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act of 1994, or CALEA, to address [...]
By David | Published: September 9, 2004
CONTENTS [1] USACM Releases FY2004 Report of Activities and Achievements [2] Digital Copyright Policy Actions of Interest to Computing Community [3] VoIP Subject to Wiretap Mandates [4] Privacy: Congress Holds Hearing, ACLU Releases Surveillance Report, and More [5] Recommendations for E-voting Call for Better Security, Testing, and Auditing [6] United Nations Moving Forward with Working [...]
