Tag archive: legislation

A newly drafted bill, floated by Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), would require mobile carriers, cell phone manufacturers, operating system makers, and third-party app creators to disclose to customers when their devices or software includes the ability to track user activity, and obtain explicit consent from customers to do so. The creation of the bill follows last year's controversy surrounding mobile monitoring software, Carrier IQ. The Mobile… Read More

Now here's some legislation privacy advocates can get behind: A new bill made public Tuesday by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) would provide a much-needed overhaul of a 25-year-old digital privacy law, and require the government to obtain search warrants to access citizens' email accounts, cell phones, instant messages, cloud storage services and social networks. The bill is an update of the Electronic Communication Privacy Act (ECPA),… Read More

In a move intended to help Americans sleep more soundly in their beds at night, the White House has proposed legislation as part of a cybersecurity plan to protect the country from damaging cyberattacks. In a statement, the White House said, “The cybersecurity vulnerabilities in our government and critical infrastructure are a risk to national security, public safety and economic prosperity.” A report by the Wall Street Journal… Read More

While the dangers of talking on cell phones while driving have been well documented in everything from government-funded studies to the TV show Mythbusters, a similar threat may be overlooked by the existing bans in many states. According to a new poll from Harris Interactive, 91 percent of American drivers believe that text messaging while driving is as dangerous as drinking and driving. Perhaps even more alarming: despite their… Read More

French lawmakers have given final approval to a proposed copyright law which could force Apple Computer and other digital media distributors to make their services interoperable with devices and technology from other developers and manufacturers. The vote was the last legislative procedure before the bill would become law, although a constitutional challenge against it was filed last week by France's opposition Socialist party.… Read More

The following statement was issued today by Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) President and CEO Gary Shapiro regarding the The Intellectual Property Protection Act (H.R. 2391): “On behalf of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), I express grave concern over several titles included in H.R. 2391. This legislation combines several intellectual property-related bills into one piece of omnibus legislation. In total it is a lot… Read More

The legislation, introduced into the UK in December 2003, seeks to ban emails sent from a business to an individual without their permission. However this rule does not apply to any unsolicited emails sent from outside the EU. MessageLabs' research shows that, in January 2004, 76.4% of spam emails to UK addresses originated from computers in the USA. This figure is likely to rise to 79.3% by March this year. This means the vast… Read More