Future of Privacy Forum applauds the NTIA Focus on Mobile Apps
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced that the first focus of its multistakeholder process will be on transparency in mobile applications. The first meeting is set for July 12, 2012, to be considered for participation, fill out an “expression of intent” form with NTIA.
The announcement came at the US Chamber of Commerce Telecommunications and E-commerce Committee meeting, where NTIA Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information Lawrence Strickling further discussed the multistakeholder process.
Mr. Strickling emphasized his goal of achieving broad participation from industry representatives, civil society, and academics in an effort to establish quality, credibility, and acceptance of the code of conduct established during the multistakeholder process.
With reference to facilitating consensus, Mr. Stickling cited the use of a professional facilitator to help “set a plan” and ensure productivity. Mr. Strickling said that he expected the first meeting to include as many as several hundred people, but that group would likely naturally narrow as the process continued.
Mr. Strickling emphasized two major aims of the multistakeholder process: (1) fleshing out the principles laid out in the White House’s “Consumer Bill of Rights” through codes of conduct and (2) ensuring voluntary adoption of the codes of conduct by companies, which will make them subject to Federal Trade Commission enforcement.
FPF Director and Co-chair Jules Polonestsky said, “Kudos to NTIA for focusing on the mobile app ecosystem, which provides incredible value to consumers, but is also the cause of increasing privacy concerns. As the world has moved from one where carriers controlled what is on your phone to a turbulent environment of hundreds of thousands of small app developers and other data collectors, it is critical that all the players in the mobile ecosystem come together to find the right balance.” Following Mr. Strickling’s remarks at the Chamber, Polonetsky participated on a panel discussing the merits of the multistakeholder process along with Berin Szoka of TechFreedom, Sarah Hudgins of the IAB, and Dan Caprio of Mckenna Long & Aldridge LLP.
June 15, 2012 – Commerce Department Tackles Mobile Privacy, MediaPost News
The Commerce Department will convene a broad array of online companies and advocates next month to attempt to reach a consensus on privacy guidelines for mobile apps.
June 14, 2012 – Important Research About Privacy Issues Sought by The Future of Privacy Forum, TAP
The Future of Privacy Forum (FPF) is seeking submissions of papers focused on privacy issues for their upcoming third edition of “Privacy Papers for Policy Makers.”
June 13, 2012 – Data in transit encryption makes cloud storage better law enforcement target, FierceGovernmentIT
Wider adoption of encryption for data in motion will drive law enforcement to increasingly target data at rest, particularly in cloud environments, says an Ohio State University academic.
June 13, 2012 – Encryption Could Drive Government to Break into Your Cloud – Nextgov
As more people use encrypted methods to browse the Web, it will become trickier for law enforcement agencies to intercept private communications in real-time, causing them to focus instead on tapping data that is stored in the cloud, according to the draft of an academic paper by a former privacy advisor to the Clinton Administration.
Cookie Consent Exemption: Article 29 WP Opinion
The European Union’s Article 29 Data Protection Working Party (WP 29) released its Opinion 04/2012 on Cookie Consent Exemption today. The opinion is released amidst the implementation of Directive 2009/136/EC (“Cookie Directive”) in most member states and aims to clarify the circumstances in which cookies are exempted from the informed consent requirement.
In its opinion, WP 29 focuses on the two “exemption criteria” established under article 5.3 of the Cookie Directive: if the cookie is, (a) used “for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network” or (b) “strictly necessary in order for the provider of an information society service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user to provide the service”. The opinion describes a variety of circumstances in which these exemption criteria do not apply; forcing controllers, processors, and third party actors to obtain informed consent before using a cookie.
Three general guidelines are drawn from the WP 29 analysis: (1) exemption under Criterion B must be evaluated “form the point of view of the user, not the service provider”, (2) “if a cookie is used for several purposes, it can only benefit from the exemption to informed consent if each distinct purpose individually benefits from such an exemption”; and (3) “The purpose of the cookie should always be the basis for evaluating if the exemption can be successfully applied rather than a technical feature of the cookie.”
Interestingly, social plug-in content sharingcookies can be considered exempt from the informed consent requirement in limited circumstances. On the other hand, third party advertising cookies, including cookies used for fraud detection purposes, are not considered to be exempt from consent requirements because “neither of these purposes can be considered to be related to a service or functionality of an information society service explicitly requested by the user.”
–Julian Flamant
Call for Papers: Policy Papers for Policy Makers 2012
PRIVACY PAPERS FOR POLICY MAKERS 2012
The Future of Privacy Forum (FPF) invites privacy scholars and authors with an interest in privacy issues to submit papers to be considered for FPF’s third edition of “Privacy Papers for Policy Makers.”
PURPOSE
• To highlight important research and analytical work on a variety of privacy topics for policy makers
• Specifically, to showcase papers that analyze current and emerging privacy issues and either propose achievable short-term solutions, or propose new means of analysis that could lead to solutions.
REVIEW PROCESS
• Academics, privacy advocates and Chief Privacy Officers on FPF’s Advisory Board will review the submitted papers to determine which papers are best suited and most useful for policy makers in Congress, at federal agencies and for distribution to data protection authorities internationally.
• Two papers selected by the chairs of the Privacy Law Scholars Conference will be included in the publication and will receive a cash award from the International Association of Privacy Professionals.
• The Future of Privacy Forum will announce the selected papers at an event with privacy leaders in September and will provide a printed digest to policy makers in the United States and abroad.
SUBMISSION
Paper Submission Deadline: July 20, 2012
Please include: author’s full name, phone number, current postal address and e-mail address.
Send via e-mail to [email protected] with the subject line “Privacy Papers for Policy Makers 2012,” or send by mail to:
Future of Privacy Forum
919 18th Street, NW, Suite 901
Washington, D.C. 20006
The entry can provide a link to a published paper or a draft paper that has a publication date. FPF will work with the authors of the selected papers to develop a summary.
Visit fpf.org/the-privacy-papers to view the 2010 and 2011 editions of Privacy Papers for Policy Makers.
This compilation is not intended to be a publication of original work. Rather we seek to make policymakers aware of papers presented at workshops or published in journals and we provide this compilation of descriptions of these papers in order to call attention to those deemed most significant.Special thanks to our 2012 Policy Papers for Policy Makers Sponsors: AT&T | Microsoft | GMAT
Opower and Privacy by Design
Opower released a whitepaper detailing how it is implementing Privacy by Design into its platform. Click here to view the whitepaper.
June 11, 2012 – How Microsoft and Yahoo Are Selling Politicians Access to You, Pro Publica
Microsoft and Yahoo are selling political campaigns the ability to target voters online with tailored ads using names, Zip codes and other registration information that users provide when they sign up for free email and other services.
June 1, 2012 – Facebook asks users to vote on privacy policy, Marin Independent Journal
Facebook is inviting its 900 million users to vote on the company’s new privacy policy in an unusual online ballot process that began Friday and runs until June 8.
