In this issue
- Location Privacy
- Signs With Eyes
- Exporting Copyright Liability without the Safeguards
- More from CDT's PolicyBeta Blog
CDT in Action
March 19, San Francisco, CA - Jim Dempsey will address privacy issues posed by the Smart Grid at a workshop of the California Public Utilities Commission
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Policymakers are beginning to pay attention to the privacy risks raised by the increasingly ubiquitous availability of accurate, individualized location information generated by cell phones and other mobile devices. Last week, CDT’s John Morris testified at a Congressional hearing on “The Collection and Use of Location Information for Commercial Purposes.” Jointly convened by two subcommittees of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the hearing featured testimony from the corporate, consumer, and academic perspectives.
As the hearing revealed, both the number of possible uses for location information and the number of companies handling such data are rapidly expanding. Web sites, application developers, location providers such as Google and Skyhook Wireless, handset vendors, operating system developers, advertisers, advertising networks, and analytics companies all may have access to precise, sensitive information about where users are located. However, the privacy laws have failed to keep pace. One key provision, for example, only applies to “telecommunications carriers,” a regulatory category that does not include many of the entities now handling location information. To avoid platform- or technology-dependent rules, Morris called on Congress to address the issue in the context of comprehensive consumer privacy legislation.
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Digital signs, billboards and displays are rapidly proliferating in stores and other public locations. This “digital signage” is increasingly incorporating identification and tracking technologies, such as facial recognition, Bluetooth and mobile phone identifiers, RFID, and license plate scanners. These technologies capture information about the people walking by or looking at the signs, and then digital signage companies use that information for various marketing purposes. To address the privacy issues, CDT has published a new report on digital signage in which we recommend consumer privacy guidelines to the industry. We warn that, unless the industry adopts strong self-regulatory guidelines, it is likely to face consumer backlash and reactive government regulation that may stifle innovation. CDT’s Harley Geiger took this message to last week’s Digital Signage Expo in Las Vegas. He blogged about his observations, noting that, while many in the industry were generally aware of privacy concerns, there was not yet a commitment to transparency and data privacy standards.
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Exporting Copyright Liability without the Safeguards
Over the past several years, the US has been secretly negotiating a multilateral trade agreement that includes a controversial section on Internet copyright enforcement. Last week, that section of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) was leaked, prompting a new round of debate. CDT’s Andrew McDiarmid authored a response, pointing out that the language of the leaked draft would export an unbalanced picture of US copyright law that could lead to overbroad and excessive enforcement, to the detriment of online innovation and legitimate speech.
In the US, the doctrine of secondary liability for copyright infringement carries important limitations, most notably exempting makers of technology capable of significant non-infringing uses. However, ACTA includes no such limitations and therefore could open the floodgates for much stricter constructions of secondary liability. Illustrating this risk, there have been several recent examples where countries have made Internet intermediaries responsible for the actions of their users, including Italy’s conviction of Google executives over the contents of a YouTube video.
More from CDT's PolicyBeta Blog
David Sohn warned about the risks of FCC mission creep.
Google Execs’ Conviction Bodes Ill for Internet Freedom – Brock Meeks commented on the dangerous precedent set by Italy’s conviction of three Google executives.
Protecting Privacy in Online Identity – Jonathan Dunn examined whether the Fair Credit Reporting Act applies to providers of identity services.
