Kevin Bankston of EFF writes: Yesterday’s Senate Judiciary mark-up of legislation to renew expiring provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act was extremely disheartening–in particular because of many committee Democrats’ failure to support new civil liberties reforms to PATRIOT(see our summary here). Those Senators who failed to stand foursquare behind Americans’ right to privacy against government…
Category: Laws
Bill to make P2P file sharing safer passes House Committee
Jaikumar Vijayan reports: The House Energy and Commerce Committee this week passed passed the Informed P2P User Act, which is designed to make it safer for consumers to use peer-to-peer, or P2P, file-sharing software. The bill, which was introduced by Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-Calif.) in March, now goes to the full House for approval….
Lawmakers Cave to FBI in Patriot Act Debate
David Kravets reports: Powerful Senate leaders on Thursday bowed to FBI concerns that adding privacy protections to an expiring provision of the Patriot Act could jeopardize “ongoing” terror investigations. The Patriot Act was adopted six weeks after the 2001 terror attacks, and greatly expanded the government’s power to intrude into the private lives of Americans…
Web Privacy Bill Could Come by November
Kate Kaye reports: Privacy legislation affecting the online advertising industry could be submitted by November. According to statements made recently by Rep. Rick Boucher, who heads up the House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet, a bill with bipartisan support could be introduced before Congress adjourns for its winter holiday break. “We are making…