Happy New Year. 2012 is starting out much like 2011 ended, with a flurry of tech policy activity, particularly in the U.S. Senate. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has scheduled a key procedural vote on the PROTECT IP Act for Jan. 24, the second day the body will be in session for the new year.
Following that, Reid has also indicated that consideration of comprehensive cybersecurity legislation is also one of his top priorities for the first work period, even though draft legislative language was just made available in mid-December. And with the House scheduled to return a week before the Senate, it’s possible, if not likely that Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) will proceed with the Committee markup of SOPA. Needless to say, the next couple weeks are going to be busy!
Also on the horizon, ICANN will begin accepting applications for new gLTDs on Thursday (January 12) despite continued objections from some members of Congress and some industry groups. The Coalition for Online Accountability, including SIIA, has recently met with NTIA leadership and the IP Enforcement Coordinator, to discuss the role of the U.S. government in curbing potential abuses of new gTLDs.
Following up on the launch of FedRAMP in December, the Administration last Friday released baseline security controls for cloud providers. Consistent with previous indication from GSA officials, these are significantly reduced from the draft controls made available about a year ago, to which SIIA and many cloud providers expressed significant concerns. GSA has reiterated that this will be an evolving list, but there is no further formal opportunity for comment.
And right before the Holidays, SIIA submitted comments to the FTC regarding their proposed revisions to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) Rule. While we expressed our support for several of the FTC’s conclusions, such as preservation of the current definition of a “child” and the “actual knowledge” standard, SIIA raised concerns regarding several of the proposals, including the proposed significant expansion of the definition of “personal information,” elimination of the “e-mail plus” method for notice and consent and various other changes.
SIIA also recommends some new approaches to accommodate new methods of notice and consent and encourages the Commission to take steps to ensure that it is applied as efficiently as possible with respect to school-based educational partners and other providers of educational materials and services.
David LeDuc is Senior Director, Public Policy at SIIA. He focuses on e-commerce, privacy, cyber security, cloud computing, open standards, e-government and information policy.