The federal government, including Congress, have done a moderately decent job of opening up government information to the public, but the House seems poised to take the important step of making more raw data available for third party developers to highlight key aspects of Congressional operations: House Leaders from both parties agreed on the need [...]
The House payroll tax extension bill is larded with rightwing ideological addenda and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski has denounced a provision that would “tie the agency’s hands in ways that could be counterproductive, reducing economic value and hindering innovation and investment.” [H]e warned that provisions limiting the FCC’s ability to designate [...]
Facebook this past month agreed to twenty years of independent audits of its privacy practices, joining Google which agreed earlier this year to similar audits following its breaches of user privacy when it introduced its aborted Buzz social network. As this piece outlines, the audits should be moderately extensive in examining how consumers’ personal information [...]
The Treasury Department told Google to shut down 85 advertisers who were scamming struggling homeowners with bogus “loan modification” or similar scams. The advertisers were preying on homeowners seeking help through the Home Affordable Modification Program, created as part of the TARP program. In a press release today, the Treasury Department alleged that scammers charged [...]
The Federal Communications Commission has refused the request of public interest group Public Knowledge to disclose when staff are talking with an outside group about taking a job. The original request was done after FCC Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker took a job with Comcast after voting in favor of Comcast’s merger with NBC-Universal. Attwell’s defense [...]
The Hill reports that an online petition proposes ending software patents: A petition on the White House’s website to end software patents has passed the number of signatures required to receive an official White House response. The petition argues that patents have become “a way to stifle innovation and prevent competition rather than supporting innovation [...]
The ACLU won a victory at the DC Court of Appeals, where the court ordered the federal government to turn over the names and docket numbers in numerous cases where the government accessed cell phone location data without a warrant. Describing the win, the ACLU wrote: This fight began in 2007 when we filed the [...]
I understand prosecutorial agreements. Companies pay money to the governments and their executives often are let off the hook from liability. Shareholders maybe should be pissed off that the company is probably paying out more money to protect the guilty executives, but that’s how it usually goes. But even if the DOJ isn’t going to [...]
