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April 13, 1999

 Capital
By JERI CLAUSING Bio

Congress Returns to a Flurry of Technology Legislation
Update on Privacy Negotiation; Flurry of New Tech bills; Lighter Moments at the Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conference

WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers back from a two-week recess will soon face a flurry of new Internet and technology legislation.

Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican who is chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, has promised to file a new compromise bill with other Senate leaders to ease the Clinton Administration's controls on the export of data-scrambling technology. That proposal, which signals a departure for McCain, is expected to dramatically alter the ongoing debate about encryption on Capitol Hill.


Lawmaker Plans Bill to Protect Consumer Privacy Online
(April 8, 1999)
McCain has also promised a bill that would bar the Federal Communications Commission from adopting any rule changes that would increase consumers' charges for accessing the Internet. That bill would also make sure local telephone companies have incentives to offer high-speed connections to the Internet, but would prohibit the FCC from forcing them to offer those services. The debate on that proposal begins on Tuesday, when McCain's committee will hold a hearing on increasing consumer and broadband access to the Internet.

Meanwhile, Representative Edward Markey last week said that he was finalizing a new version of his "Privacy Bill of Rights." That proposal would require companies to give consumers the final authority over what information is collected about them online and how it used.

Another debate that will resume soon is what to do about unsolicited commercial e-mail, or spam. Just before the break, Senators Frank Murkowski and Robert Torricelli filed the "Inbox Privacy Act," an update of spam legislation the two sponsored last year.

Anti-spam groups, however, still oppose the bill, saying it is too cumbersome for Internet service providers. Ray Everett-Church, a lobbyist for the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email, said he hoped a compromise being negotiated by his group and the Direct Marketing Association will make the Torricelli-Murkowski proposal moot.


Web Sites for White House Race Show Lessons Learned
(April 7, 1999)
Gore Gaffe Not the Administration's First on Privacy

Vice President Al Gore, who has positioned himself as a leader for the Internet age, took a few embarrassing stumbles last week as he launched his presidential campaign Web site.

In a repeat of an earlier gaffe on the White House Web site, the Vice President's Campaign 2000 page initially was designed with a section that violated an Internet privacy policy Gore has championed. The section would have asked children for their names, e-mail addresses and zip codes –- a practice that soon will be illegal for commercial Web sites under legislation Gore promoted last year.

Although the section was deleted before algore2000.com went live, it touched off a round of spin between Democrats and Republicans.

"Internet creator Al Gore finally became the last of the declared and undeclared Presidential candidates to unveil a Web site yesterday, and promptly found himself running afoul of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act -- a law Gore claimed credit for in his other career as Vice President," the Republican National Committee said in a press release.

Gore's campaign was quick to respond that they have the only political Web site with a privacy policy that tells people how the personal information they collect is used.

Deirdre Mulligan, a lawyer with the Center for Democracy and Technology, said the political response "shows that privacy is prime-time. It's interesting that this has become a campaign issue, that the Republicans and Democrats are arguing over who has the best privacy practice."

The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, which takes effect in 2001, prohibits commercial Web sites from gathering personal information from children without parental consent. While that law would likely not apply to a campaign site, many expect Gore to lead by example.

The Administration found itself in a similar conundrum last year after a survey found that few government Web sites - including the White House site -- followed the practices the Administration was pushing the industry to adopt. While the White House site still has a special children's section that collects personal information from visitors, it has since posted a privacy policy and encourages children to get parental permission before sending e-mail.

Another message on Gore's Web site left some techies scratching their heads. Hidden in the programming code was a declaration that the site supported the "open source" movement, an effort that promotes sharing the code used to develop software programs. But those who dug further found that the site is built with products from Microsoft –- a company that refuses to share its programming code.

Did Vint Cerf Create Al Gore?

Hundreds of people attending a luncheon at the Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference in Washington last week got a laugh over one of Gore's previous blunders, his statement that he created the Internet.

During a question-and-answer session with the conference's keynote speaker, Vint Cerf -– who actually did create the global network –- Jason Catlett, a privacy advocate, asked Cerf if he could "comment on reports that you actually invented Al Gore."

"I have a feeling his parents wouldn't be too happy about that," Cerf responded, adding, "I never talk about my illegitimate children anyway."

Privacy Group Presents "Orwell Awards"

One of the lighter moments at last week's Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conference was the presentation of the First Annual Orwell Awards by the London-based organization Privacy International.

The group's director, Simon Davies, proudly opened the envelopes to reveal who privacy groups had selected as the biggest privacy invaders.

Florida's Republican Congressman, Bill McCollum, won "Overall Worst Public Official." The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s "Know Your Customer" initiative won "Most Invasive Government Proposal." And a company that purchases pharmacy data, ELENSYS Corp., was named "Worst Corporate Invader."

The Electronic Privacy Information Center's policy director, David Banisar, disguised as the Angel of Death, accepted all but one of the awards on behalf of the absent winners.


Forum
How Safe Is Your Privacy on the Web?

But Saul Klein, Microsoft's group program manager for Web platform services, beat Banisar to the podium when Microsoft was named outstanding nominee for the "People's Choice" category, joining the light but sarcastic mood to thank his parents and everyone else he could think of for their help in winning the award.

Klein ended the spoof awards ceremony on a more serious note, vowing that Microsoft would continue its cooperative efforts to insure consumers have the tools they need to protect their privacy in cyberspace.

Talks With European Union on Privacy Continue

President Clinton's top trade adviser and the European Union were back at the table last week trying to hammer out their differences on data privacy protections. Although progress was made, officials say, they remain deadlocked on issues of enforcement and whether consumers should have access to data that has been collected about them.

Gerard De Graf, first secretary of trade for the European Commission's delegation to the United States, said the U.S. trade ambassador, David Aaron, and the director general of the European Commission, John Mogg, met for about eight hours last week and "made good progress" on drafting a proposed privacy agreement.

De Graf said he expects that draft will be released in a few weeks, minus any compromise on enforcement and access issues, which lie at the heart of the dispute between the European Union and the Clinton Administration.

The Administration, which supports self-regulation of online privacy and consumer protection practices, has for more than a year been trying to convince the European Union that its proposed framework for self-regulation and self-enforcement of data privacy practices are effective enough to meet a stringent new European Union privacy law.

That law, which took effect last October, prohibits any company doing business in the European Union from transmitting personal data to any country that does not guarantee comparable privacy protection. The United States was granted a reprieve from any trade disruptions while negotiations continue.

Aaron and Mogg hope to have an acceptable U.S. framework to present to the Commission at its next meeting in June.

The CAPITAL DISPATCH column is published weekly, on Tuesdays. Click here for a list of links to other columns in the series.

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Jeri Clausing at jeri@nytimes.com welcomes your comments and suggestions.

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