Administration Releases Long-Awaited Study on “Big Data” and Privacy

, BIG DATA, FTC, IANA, ICANN, INTERNET BILL OF RIGHTS, NETMUNDIAL, PATENT REFORM, PRIVACY more

District Court Upholds FTC Data Security Authority

NTIA Relinquishing Hold Over Management of the Internet

White House Holds Patent Event With Congress in recess this week, the Administration will pick up the torch on patent reform, holding a White House event on Thursday to highlight the progress on the Administration’s patent policy agenda. The event marks the one-year anniversary of the President’s call to action to combat the problem of “patent trolls” and abusive patent litigation, and will feature keynote addresses by senior administration officials, including PTO Deputy Director Michelle Lee, on the status of the reform agenda announced on June 4, 2013 and other efforts underway.

SIIA’s Government Affairs Council met to identify the organization’s policy priorities for 2014.  Following the meeting, which took place Wednesday, SIIA announced that it will continue to take a leadership role in promoting the economic and social value of data-driven innovation, and to advocate for policies that enable innovation, rather than creating broad restrictions on the collection and use of data. SIIA also said that a top legislative priority in the year ahead will be enactment of patent litigation reform and legislative measures that assure that digital content providers can control the distribution of their products and services.

SIIA Submits Comments on U.S. Department of Commerce Green Paper On Friday, SIIA submitted comments to the Internet Policy Task Force in response to its request for public remarks on its Copyright Green Paper. Addressing a majority of the Task Force’s questions, SIIA’s response focused in on the Task Force’s examination of the first sale defense in the digital environment. In summary, SIIA is concerned that potential application of the first sale doctrine to licensed material, or other undue restrictions that may be placed on either the ability of publishers to license or the manner in which publishers license, will make it more challenging for publishers to recoup the investment they have made to develop new products and update existing ones and to widely distribute their products and services to the public in the manner that consumers enjoy today.

First weeks of 2014 Promise a Busy Year on Student Data Privacy Senator Edward Markey (D-MA) announced plans today to introduce student data privacy legislation, likely amending the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). The announcement was made at an EPIC event and featured reaction from CLIP’s Joel Ridenberg and USED CPO Kathleen Styles, among others. Senator Markey’s legislationwould restrict the use of student data for commercial purposes, require parental access and correction, require minimum security safeguards, and require private companies to delete information no longer needed to serve those students. SIIA responded that Federal Laws Protect Student Privacy. This week’s USED response to questions from Senator Markey similarly reinforced current federal protections. Meanwhile, state legislatures are considering bills across the country ranging from parental opt-in or opt-out to Parent’s Bill of Right ...

The FTC Takes Close Look at Native Advertising, Additional Guidance Likely On Dec. 4, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) hosted a full day workshop to examine the blending of advertisements with news, entertainment, and other editorial content in digital media, referred to as “native advertising” or “sponsored content.” The workshop was titled “Blurred Lines,” highlighting the FTC’s concerns about the ability of users to distinguish editorial content from sponsored content. FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez identified the key focus of the workshop to explore whether industry self-regulation and best practices are working, to ensure that users are able to distinguish between paid and editorial content, and the retransmission and aggregation of native advertising and the various ways this is done.

FTC Takes Close Look at “Native Advertising” The Federal Trade Commission will host a workshop on Wednesday to examine the blending of advertisements with news, entertainment, and other editorial content in digital media, referred to as “native advertising” or “sponsored content.” The workshop will bring together publishing and advertising industry representatives, consumer advocates, academics, and self-regulatory organizations to explore: the ways in which sponsored content is presented to consumers online and in mobile apps; consumers’ recognition and understanding of it; the contexts in which it should be identifiable as advertising; and effective ways of differentiating it from editorial content. The workshop builds on previous Commission initiatives to help ensure that consumers can identify advertisements as advertising wherever they appear. This includes recent updates to the Search Engine Advertising guidance, the  ...