From the Washington Post:
Several Internet and broadband companies have acknowledged using targeted-advertising technology without explicitly informing customers, according to letters released yesterday by the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
From the Guardian:
Websites on sensitive subjects such as the bloody crackdown on democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989 were accessible in the Chinese capital yesterday as the authorities lifted more internet restrictions in order to meet their Olympic Games commitments.However, reporters questioned the International Olympic Committee's claim that the issue had been 'resolved', pointing out that many sites - such as those sympathising with Tibetan groups - could still not be accessed.
From the Mercury News:
A congressional committee wants the nation's largest telecommunications and Internet companies to explain whether they target online advertising based on consumers' search queries and Web surfing habits.In an expanding inquiry into the state of consumer privacy on the Internet, House Energy and Commerce Committee leaders sent letters Friday to more than 30 companies, demanding to know whether they track where their users go online and use that information to deliver personalized advertising.
Among the companies receiving the letters were Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, AT&T, Comcast, Qwest Communications International, Verizon Communications, Time Warner's AOL unit and Time Warner Cable. The companies were given a week to respond.
From the Mercury News:
A divided Federal Communications Commission has ruled that Comcast violated federal policy when it blocked Internet traffic for some subscribers and has ordered the cable giant to change the way it manages its network.In a precedent-setting move, the FCC by a 3-2 vote Friday enforced a policy that guarantees customers open access to the Internet.
The commission did not assess a fine, but ordered the company to stop cutting off transfers of large data files among customers who use a special type of "file-sharing" software.
U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today announced that a number of the largest American internet companies, human rights organizations and other stakeholders have reached agreement on a voluntary code of conduct that would govern internet companies operating in countries where internet freedom is restricted, like China. The participants are now reviewing the agreement for final approval.
From the Guardian:
China has lifted blocks on several long-barred websites after criticism of their censorship.The move, which followed overnight talks with the International Olympic Committee, means that sites including those of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the BBC Chinese language service are accessible in Beijing, Shanghai and possibly further afield.
The ban had been deeply embarrassing for the IOC, which had said that journalists would have the same internet access they had enjoyed at previous Olympics.
From the Australian Broadcasting Corporation:
Internet censorship in China is now being allowed during the Olympic period on the basis that the blocked websites are not related to the Games.The stance is a backdown on earlier promises made by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Chinese Olympic organisers.
From the Electronic Frontier Foundation:
The ACLU, EFF, and a coalition of plaintiffs achieved yet another victory for online free speech this week when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirmed a district court's decision granting a permanent injunction against enforcement of the Child Online Protection Act of 1998 (COPA), a federal law that would violate the First Amendment by imposing civil and criminal penalties on commercial website operators that publish sexually explicit material without also using credit card authentication or other technological measures to verify viewer age and block access by minors.
From USA Today:
Congress is considering a bill that would bar children who use computers in public libraries from accessing Facebook and other social networking websites without parental permission.Rep. Mark Steven Kirk, the Illinois Republican who sponsored the measure, says the proposal would keep sexual predators from contacting minors who are using a library computer.
But the American Library Association says Kirk's bill is yet another attempt by the federal government to interfere with library users' privacy and free speech.
From Information World Review:
Google and Viacom have reached an agreement to omit user information from a YouTube log which the search giant has been forced to hand over.The agreement means that Viacom will not be able to see precisely which videos have been accessed by each viewer, nor will it be able to see a specific user's viewing history.
Additionally, all users' IP addresses and visitor ID information will be removed from the list.
From the Mercury News:
Microsoft and Google told lawmakers today that Congress should pass basic privacy legislation to protect information about consumers, such as the data being gathered about people's Web surfing habits in order to pinpoint Internet advertising.At a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on online advertising, representatives of the two technology rivals said meaningful privacy rules should be based on three core principles: Consumers should be clearly notified what information is being collected about them; people should control how that information is used; and such data should be secured to ensure it does not fall into the wrong hands.
From the BBC:
Google must divulge the viewing habits of every user who has ever watched any video on YouTube, a US court has ruled.The ruling comes as part of Google's legal battle with Viacom over allegations of copyright infringement.
From the Public Policy Institute of California:
This survey is the first in a new five-year PPIC Statewide Survey series focusing on information technology issues, funded with grants from the California Emerging Technology Fund and from ZeroDivide. The series’ intent is to inform state policymakers, encourage discussion, and raise public awareness about a variety of information technology issues. For this benchmark survey, we draw upon earlier PPIC Statewide Surveys for California trends over time and recent surveys by the Pew Internet & American Life Project for national comparisons.Although the use of the Internet and information technology is expanding nationally, with California a global leader in this arena, we know from past studies that a number of large and important subgroups in the California population do not have access to information technology. Given the role of the Internet in modern society, and the reality of the digital divide, this survey seeks to inform and improve public policy choices involving this disjunction between large populations who are and are not “connected.” We examine both access and use of information technology as well as the public’s perceptions and attitudes.
From Search Engine Watch:
Like a politician making campaign promises, Google has announced its involvement in the launch of the "Internet for Everyone" campaign. Unlike politicians, we actually know what the campaign is all about from the title and there's a higher chance of Google carrying out this platform than politicians keeping their promises.The "Internet for Everyone" campaign is based on four principles: Access, Choice, Openness, and Innovation.
From Reuters:
Google Inc has told a senior Republican lawmaker concerned about privacy that the Internet search and advertising company supports a federal privacy law.Privacy advocates object to the amount of information that Google, Yahoo and other online companies collect about users. Google, in particular, has been under pressure to post a link on its home page to its privacy policy.
From the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation:
Bell Canada Inc. is facing another challenge to its internet throttling practices as Quebec's consumer watchdog, L'Union des consommateurs, has filed a class-action lawsuit against the company.The suit, filed Thursday in Quebec Superior Court on behalf of Montreal resident Myrna Raphael, seeks certification for all subscribers in the province. The lawsuit alleges that by deliberately slowing internet speeds, Bell has misrepresented its service and raised concerns over privacy.
From the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation:
The NDP [New Democratic Party of Canada] has followed through with its promise to introduce legislation to the House of Commons that seeks to keep the internet open and free from control by service providers. . .. . . The private member's bill, C-552, is in reaction to moves by some of Canada's largest internet service providers (ISPs), including Bell Canada Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc., to limit their customers' uses of the internet. Bell, Rogers and a few others say a small percentage of customers have been congesting their networks by using peer-to-peer applications such as BitTorrent, so they have slowed the internet down at peak times of the day.
From the Mercury News:
Wireless Internet service provider MetroFi, the company providing much-touted citywide service, is logging out of the business. The Mountain View-based company said it's discontinuing its free WiFi service because the business model of online advertising as its primary income has not worked out financially.
From the Mercury News:
Cisco, Google and Yahoo vigorously defended their business operations in China, but skeptical senators and human rights advocates told the companies Tuesday they need to do more to protect user privacy and combat censorship around the world.
From Yahoo! News:
Iranian authorities have blocked access to several websites and blogs of women's rights advocates and journalists critical of the government, a press report said on Tuesday.The move follows a new directive sent out by a committee tasked with identifying illegal websites to Internet service providers, the reformist Etemad Melli newspaper said without giving a source.
From Information World Review:
An Indian man is facing five years in jail for making an "offensive" comment after Google handed his personal data to local police.Rahul Krishnakumar Vaid, a 22 year-old IT consultant, was arrested after posting derogatory comments on Google's Orkut social networking site.
Vaid was posting in a forum called 'I hate Soniya Gandhi' and was identified after the police asked Google to hand over his email address.
From the Center for Democracy & Technology:
The Congress and Administration should make global Internet freedom a top human rights and foreign policy priority, CDT said today in testimony submitted to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law. The government should closely monitor and report on global Internet freedom and factor progress in this area into criteria for development assistance and conditions for trade agreements. CDT also called for greater cooperation between the U.S. government and the technology industry to better manage human rights risks associated with offering Internet services in repressive countries.
CDT Analysis of the Global Online Freedom Act of 2008 [H.R. 275]
From the Mercury News:
EarthLink Inc. is pulling the plug on its troubled wireless high-speed Internet network in Philadelphia, once touted as a model for how big cities should deploy Wi-Fi.The Atlanta-based Internet service provider said Tuesday that it could not find a buyer for the $17 million network and that talks to give it to either the city or a nonprofit organization had failed.
City officials have said it would cost taxpayers millions each year to operate the network.
From Ars Technica:
China is refusing to guarantee that it won't censor the Internet during this summer's Olympic Games, but insists that the international media will still be able to function normally. Officials from China's Technology Ministry took a somewhat odd opportunity to speak about its censorship plans during a press conference after the Olympic torch relay crossed Mount Everest. They said that while the government would be able to "guarantee as much [access] as possible," there's no way that China would turn off the Great Firewall entirely during the Games.
From News.com:
The only Net neutrality proposal to encounter some measure of success in the U.S. Congress is back again for another try.As foreshadowed at a March hearing, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) on Thursday reintroduced the Internet Freedom and Non-discrimination Act, which passed by a 20-13 vote in the same committee in 2006. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) is co-sponsoring the bill, but so far, it is not clear whether any Republicans have signed on.
Just like last time, the bill would rewrite U.S. antitrust law to prohibit network operators like AT&T and Comcast from blocking, impairing, or discriminating against "lawful" Internet content, applications, and services or charging extra fees for "prioritization or enhanced quality of service."
From Bloomberg:
Google Inc., Microsoft Corp., Yahoo! Inc. and other Internet search-engine providers must cut the time they retain users' online records to comply with European Union privacy laws, advisers to regulators decided today.Privacy-protection officials from the 27 EU nations unanimously adopted proposals that may force search engines to change the way they store data unless there is "a valid justification." The Article 29 Data Protection Working Party decided after a two-day meeting in Brussels today that the maximum time for keeping search data is six months.
From the Internet Archive:
The Internet Archive, a San Francisco-based organization dedicated to preserving a record of the Internet and to increasing access to the Internet, today began offering free Internet service to public housing projects at speeds far greater than any other city resident can receive.
New Pew Internet & American Life Project report:
Many Americans assume that China's internet users are unhappy about their government's control of the internet, but a new survey finds most Chinese say they approve of internet regulation, especially by the government.According to findings from the fourth and most recent of a series of surveys about internet use in China from 2000 to 2007,1 over 80% of respondents say they think the internet should be managed or controlled, and in 2007, almost 85% say they think the government should be responsible for doing it.
From the Mercury News:
Syria is cracking down more on Internet use, imposing tighter monitoring of citizens who link to the Web, as well as jailing bloggers who criticize the government and blocking YouTube and other Web sites deemed harmful to state security.
From the Guardian:
Chinese authorities appear to have stopped blocking the BBC News website, making the English-language version of the site fully accessible throughout the country.The Chinese government has never officially confirmed that it blocked traffic to the site, but for years web users in China have been served an error message when attempting to access the BBC and other western news sites.
Twitter users and BBC staff in China have reported for several days that they can access stories on the corporation's news website which would previously have been blocked, including stories on the unrest in Tibet.
However, the Chinese-language site still appears to be blocked. Users are served a page that says "the connection has been reset" when attempting to access pages, giving the appearance of a technical error with the BBC's site.
From Secrecy News:
Legislation pending in the Russian Duma [parliament] would impose new Russian government controls on online content, according to an analysis of Russian news reports from the DNI Open Source Center.
See “Russia–Increased Attempts to Regulate Internet,” DNI Open Source Center, March 24, 2008.
From Yahoo! News:
The Cuban authorities have blocked access from Cuba to the country's most-read blogger, Yoani Sanchez, she said on Monday.Sanchez, whose critical "Generacion Y" blog received 1.2 million hits in February, said Cubans can no longer visit her Web page (http://www.desdecuba.com/generaciony/) and two other home-grown bloggers on the Web site on a server in Germany.
All they can see is a "error downloading" message.
From the New York Times:
After reading about how Internet companies like Google, Microsoft and Yahoo collect information about people online and use it for targeted advertising, one New York assemblyman said there ought to be a law.So he drafted a bill, now gathering support in Albany, that would make it a crime — punishable by a fine to be determined — for certain Web companies to use personal information about consumers for advertising without their consent.
From WTVQ:
Kentucky Representative Tim Couch filed a bill this week to make anonymous posting online illegal.The bill would require anyone who contributes to a website to register their real name, address and e-mail address with that site.
Their full name would be used anytime a comment is posted.
From the Mercury News:
The New York attorney general's office has requested information from Comcast Corp. on the company's handling of Internet traffic.Comcast, the nation's largest cable company, is the subject of several complaints to the Federal Communications Commission and has been sued by customers over its throttling of file-sharing traffic on its cable-modem service.
From the Deseret Morning News:
Utah Internet service providers could earn a state-approved "G-rating" for filtering content and insuring that users could not access pornography under provisions in a bill heard by a House committee on Monday.HB407, sponsored by Rep. Michael Morley, R-Spanish Fork, would require the Utah Division of Consumer Protection to create a designation for providers who prevent access to "prohibited" material. After attaining the "seal of approval," providers would be subject for fines up to $10,000 for violating requirements.
From the Mercury News:
Most of the world's Internet users lost access to YouTube for several hours Sunday after an attempt by Pakistan's government to block access domestically affected other countries.The outage highlighted yet another of the Internet's vulnerabilities, coming less than a month after broken fiber-optic cables in the Mediterranean took Egypt off line and caused communications problems from the Middle East to India.
From Public Knowledge:
Comcast’s defense of its indefensible practice of throttling BitTorrent rests on the definition of the word “block.” For such a big company, and for such a big industry, that’s not much of a defense. But at the point, it’s all they have. The question is whether it will be enough to save Comcast from being the test case that proved the need for a strong government presence to keep the Internet open and free from network control.At the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) extraordinary hearing in Cambridge, Mass., yesterday (Feb. 25), FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said that companies can’t “arbitrarily block access to particular applications and services” and that any such blockage must be done in a way transparent not only to consumers but to applications developers. He said the Commission was “ready, willing and able to step in” if it found such a situation.
From the Washington Post:
Two lawmakers have introduced legislation that would prohibit broadband providers from blocking or impairing Web content from competitors.Representatives Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, and Chip Pickering, a Mississippi Republican, introduced the Internet Freedom Preservation Act last week. The bill says it is U.S. policy to "guard against unreasonable discriminatory favoritism for, or degredation of, content by network operators based upon its source, ownership, or destination on the Internet."
From the Mercury News:
Weeklong discussions in India about the creation of online domain names entirely in languages other than English led to greater understanding but no major decisions, the chief executive of the Internet's key oversight agency said Friday.At issue is a proposed "fast-track" mechanism for specific countries to get non-English suffixes - the ".com" part of Internet addresses. For example, many Internet users in China would like to see a Chinese-character equivalent of the ".cn" suffix.
From the Mercury News:
A Democratic lawmaker on Wednesday proposed legislation to stop network providers from playing traffic cop on the Internet.Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's subcommittee on telecommunications and the Internet, introduced the bill to promote the principle, known as "Net neutrality," of treating all Internet traffic equally.
Markey, who introduced similar legislation in 2006, said the bill doesn't regulate the Internet, only makes sure the rules of online engagement are fair. His spokeswoman said he wanted to defuse critics' arguments that the bill amounts to regulation, which she called inaccurate.
From EurActiv:
The hurdles faced by disabled citizens every day are not just infrastructure-related. Despite the disabled being the most frequent users of media, just 5% of websites in Europe are accessible to the blind and an even smaller proportion of TV programmes are deaf-friendly.The Commission is currently studying new measures to establish industrial standards which should pave the way to easier access to new technologies with high potential spin-offs. The measures are being introduced in the face of what some describe as a "failure of the market" to guarantee accessibility.
From the Mercury News:
The Federal Communications Commission will investigate complaints that Comcast Corp. actively interferes with Internet traffic as its subscribers try to share files online, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said Tuesday. A coalition of consumer groups and legal scholars asked the agency in November to stop Comcast from discriminating against certain types of data. Two groups also asked the FCC to fine the nation's No. 2 Internet provider $195,000 for every affected subscriber.
From the Sydney Morning Herald:
China is introducing strict regulations to control videos, podcasts and other audio-visual content on the internet, official media reported.From next month, only state websites will be allowed to carry film or radio programs, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) said.
Providers will not be able to offer material containing sex, violence or gambling as well as anything against state interests or security or that threatens social morals.
The regulations are mainly targeted at the increasingly popular video-sharing websites.
From the Guardian:
Parents could be required to provide their children with high-speed internet access under plans being drawn up by ministers in partnership with some of the country's leading IT firms.Jim Knight, the schools minister, said he is in talks with companies such as Microsoft, BT, Sky, Virgin and RM to help close the widening achievement gap between pupils from the richest and poorest families. More than one million children have no access to a computer at home.
From News.com:
Iranian police have closed down 24 Internet cafes and other coffee shops in as many hours, as part of a broad crackdown on "immoral" behavior in the Islamic state, official media said Sunday.The action in Tehran province was the latest move in a campaign against practices deemed incompatible with Islamic values, including women not adhering to strict dress codes and barber shops offering men Western hair styles.
From The Guardian:
A California free speech group whose board of directors includes Google and Yahoo said on Monday it had asked U.S. trade officials to challenge China's Internet restrictions as a violation of global trade rules.The issue threatens to further strain U.S.-China trade relations if the U.S. Trade Representative's office decides to take on the case. With China already the world's second-largest Internet market with over 162 million Web users, the commercial stakes are huge.
"China's censorship of the Internet, while fundamentally an issue of free speech and individual liberty, is also a significant barrier to U.S.-China commerce, and therefore, very much a trade issue," Peter Scheer, executive director of the California First Amendment Coalition, said in a statement that came as top U.S. officials were in Beijing for economic talks.
From the New York Times:
Will privacy sell?Ask.com is betting it will. The fourth-largest search engine company will begin a service today called AskEraser, which allows users to make their searches more private.
Ask.com and other major search engines like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft typically keep track of search terms typed by users and link them to a computer’s Internet address, and sometimes to the user. However, when AskEraser is turned on, Ask.com discards all that information, the company said.
From News.com:
The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a bill saying that anyone offering an open Wi-Fi connection to the public must report illegal images including "obscene" cartoons and drawings--or face fines of up to $300,000.That broad definition would cover individuals, coffee shops, libraries, hotels, and even some government agencies that provide Wi-Fi. It also sweeps in social-networking sites, domain name registrars, Internet service providers, and e-mail service providers such as Hotmail and Gmail, and it may require that the complete contents of the user's account be retained for subsequent police inspection. . .
. . . Wednesday's vote caught Internet companies by surprise: the Democratic leadership rushed the SAFE Act to the floor under a procedure that's supposed to be reserved for noncontroversial legislation. It was introduced October 10, but has never received even one hearing or committee vote. In addition, the legislation approved this week has changed substantially since the earlier version and was not available for public review.
Securing Adolescents From Exploitation-Online Act, or SAFE Act (H.R.3791)
From The Times Online:
Italy's leaders barely understand word processors, let alone the web. Now they've turned against the country's bloggers.Recently, Italian lawmakers once again took aim at modern life, introducing an incredibly broad law that would effectively require all bloggers, and even users of social networks, to register with the state. Even a harmless blog about a favourite football squad or a teenager grousing about life’s unfairness would be subject to government oversight, and even taxation – even if it’s not a commercial website.