http://www.cdt.org The Center for Democracy and Technology works to promote democratic values and constitutional liberties in the digital age. With expertise in law, technology, and policy, CDT seeks practical solutions to enhance free expression and privacy in global communications technologies. CDT is dedicated to building consensus among all parties interested in the future of the Internet and other new communications media. en http://www.cdt.org/headlines/1112 The Center for Democracy & Technology is pleased to announce that Ari Schwartz, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, has been appointed to the US Department of Commerce National Institute of Standards and Technology Information Security and Privacy Advisory Board. The Board advises the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Secretary of Commerce, and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget on information security and privacy issues pertaining to information systems in the Federal Government. The Board was created by the Computer Security Act of 1987, and its name was changed and mission reaffirmed by the E-Government Act of 2002. http://www.cdt.org/headlines/1113 In a friend-of-the-court brief filed today, CDT argues that anti-spyware vendors should be protected by the liability protections afforded other filtering companies under the Communications Decency Act. CDT was joined by a broad spectrum of Internet and technology industry groups, public interest organizations, civil liberties groups and individual companies that are all committed to the proposition that users should be empowered to control their own Internet experiences. The brief urges the court to protect anti-spyware vendors from liability in cases brought to intimidate anti-spyware vendors into ignoring spyware. http://www.cdt.org/headlines/1111 The long-range or "vicinity" Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology chosen by the Departments of Homeland Security and State for government-issued ID documents poses serious risks to personal privacy and security, CDT testified today before a Senate Homeland Security Subcommittee. CDT recommended that DHS and State abandon the technology, which was originally developed to track things, not people, and that encryption be used to protect a citizen's unique ID number. CDT also urged Congress to support legislation or regulations banning unauthorized "skimming" of RFID chips and prohibiting use of the passport card and Enhanced Driver's License beyond border security. http://www.cdt.org/headlines/1109 The Anti-Spyware Coalition has created a new internal working group to review privacy concerns raised by partnerships between behavioral targeting advertising companies and ISPs. The concerns stem from instances in which these business relationships result in all, or substantially all, user Web traffic being passed to advertisers with little or no notice. In many instances the activities raising privacy concerns are taking place by exploiting "borderline" acceptable practices in order to skirt anti-spyware products. The new working group will convene to specifically review current guidelines and recommend changes if needed. http://www.cdt.org/headlines/1110 CDT applauds the Senate's passage of HR 293, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2007 (GINA) by unanimous consent. The House is expected to quickly pass the measure. The bill represents a significant step forward in protecting health privacy because it prohibits the use of genetic information by employers when making hiring decisions or by health insurers when making coverage decisions or adjusting premiums. Under GINA, employers and insurers also would not be allowed to impose genetic testing requirements. CDT is urging the President to quickly sign the bill into law. http://www.cdt.org/headlines/1108 The Center for Democracy and Technology today called for judicial oversight of National Security Letters (NSLs); the documents are used by the FBI when seeking records containing sensitive personal information. Successive Inspector General reports have uncovered abuses and mistakes by the FBI in issuing the NSLs. In testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, CDT's Greg Nojeim said that FBI self-policing does not work. CDT and other organizations issued a letter endorsing the NSL Reform Act, S. 2088, which would place more restrictions on how NSLs are issued and subject them to judicial oversight. http://www.cdt.org/headlines/1107 The Federal Trade Commission's proposed behavioral advertising principles aren't strong enough on their own to adequately protect consumers, according to comments filed jointly today by CDT, Consumer Action and Privacy Activism. Although the principles represent a solid first step in the process, protecting consumer privacy interests in this space will require a rigorous mix of self-regulation, enforcement of existing law, and the passage of new general privacy law. The comments include CDT's finding that there are several practices of concern occurring on the Internet today that remain unaddressed by current self-regulation. Based on this research and other industry developments, CDT, Consumer Action, and Privacy Activism recommend ways for the FTC to bolster several of its proposed principles. The groups also urge the Commission to explain how it will ensure industry compliance with the principles. http://www.cdt.org/headlines/1106 Today CDT sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee highlighting Department of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff’s recent testimony in which he wrongly asserted that the personal information stored on REAL ID cards will be safe from unauthorized access, and accused privacy advocates of spreading “misinformation.” In fact, the REAL ID Act and regulations mandate that Americans’ personal data be stored in an unsecured barcode, which can be easily scanned with widely available readers. http://www.cdt.org/headlines/1105 Over the past few months, the Center for Democracy & Technology has joined a series of "friend of the court" briefs urging courts to broadly enforce a federal law that shields Internet website operators from liability for content posted by Internet users. This immunity from liability has been a vital underpinning of the explosion of user generated sites such as blogs and video sharing websites. Although many courts have broadly interpreted "Section 230" to protect these websites, an increasing number of cases challenge that protection. Earlier this week, CDT released an analysis of this trend and an overview of the arguments presented by CDT to the courts. Yesterday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the Roommates.com website and held that Section 230 did not protect the site from a civil lawsuit. CDT believes that the court's decision is an ominous indicator of the threats to openness and free expression online. http://www.cdt.org/headlines/1104 Comcast, in a joint statement with BitTorrent, today said that by the end of 2008 it will abandon the controversial practice of responding to network congestion by degrading BitTorrent and other selected peer-to-peer traffic, in favor of a "protocol agnostic" approach. CDT applauds the new announcement because it appears to call for exactly the kind of evenhanded and transparent approach that CDT has advocated. The announcement also calls for cooperation to make peer-to-peer systems more bandwidth-efficient, another welcome development. http://www.cdt.org/headlines/1103 CDT today released a compendium of definitions for those grappling with the question of what information should be considered "sensitive" in the online behavioral targeting context. Culled from an array of statutes, self-regulatory guidelines and policy proposals, the definitions address information about individuals that has been granted some measure of special treatment. Use of sensitive data is a key issue in the FTC's proposed self-regulatory principles released in December 2007. The compendium was developed in consultation with CDT's Internet Privacy Working Group. http://www.cdt.org/headlines/1102 The ability of the FCC to punish broadcast stations for airing "fleeting expletives" -- the one-time blurting out of profanity on broadcast programming -- is now in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court announced this week that it will hear a case in which a lower court ruled that the FCC's new policy of penalizing one-time utterances of profanity was illegal under federal administrative law. CDT is concerned that the Supreme Court will reverse the trend of modern free speech precedent by increasing the Commission's power to censor broadcast speech, rather than focus on federal administrative law, as the lower court largely did. http://www.cdt.org/headlines/1101 In a brief filed today with the Ninth Circuit of Appeals, the Center for Democracy & Technology asked the court to strike down a provision of the Patriot Act as unconstitutional. That provision allows the government to use intelligence authorities to conduct searches for criminal purposes without first having probable cause of a crime. CDT and three other civil liberties groups, in the case of Portland, Ore.-based attorney Brandon Mayfield, filed the amicus brief. The government wrongly suspected Mayfield of involvement in the 2004 Madrid train bombings. http://www.cdt.org/headlines/1100 CDT applauded the House of Representatives today for passing a compromise intelligence surveillance bill. CDT urges the Senate to adopt the bill's provisions protecting privacy and promoting accountability. The House bill requires prior judicial authorization of procedures governing surveillance targeting people abroad who may be communicating with people in the U.S., but does not require individual orders in such cases. While the bill rejects blanket retroactive immunity for telecoms that assisted with illegal warrantless surveillance, it would allow the companies to use national security information in defending themselves against litigation. http://www.cdt.org/headlines/1098 Today CDT submitted written comments to the Department of Homeland Security’s Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee on the substantial privacy and civil liberties risks of E-Verify, the DHS program to electronically verify the work eligibility of newly hired employees in an effort to combat illegal immigration. CDT urged the Committee to make recommendations to DHS and Congress to provide adequate safeguards and procedures to protect the rights of workers.