Tag: OBAMAADMINISTRATION

The Obama administration is pushing Congress to adopt a so-called "privacy bill of rights," in order to offer greater protection for Americans concerned about online data gathering and targeted advertising. Assistant Secretary of Commerce Lawrence E. Strickling is expected to propose the legislation today during a hearing of the Senate Commerce Committee. A source familiar with the matter told ...

The Obama administration has put together a new set of digital copyright laws aimed at cracking down on illegal downloads and other forms of online piracy. Yesterday, intellectual property enforcement coordinator Victoria Espinel released a 92-page report (PDF), outlining the White House's copyright proposals, which will be submitted to Congress "in the very near future." Although the report ...

The Obama administration is pushing for a new policy that, if implemented, would give the U.S. government the power to veto any top-level domain names submitted for approval. The process of approving suffixes like .com, .org and .net is overseen by a non-profit called Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which operates under a contract with the government. Current ...

A consumer-advocacy group is urging Congress to investigate what it calls a suspiciously "cozy" relationship between Google and the Obama administration. In a letter (PDF) sent to Representative Darrell Issa, Consumer Watchdog asked the Republican to hold a congressional investigation into contracts that governmental agencies have signed with Google, as well as the NSA's "secretive" ...

President Obama is looking to create an Internet ID system for American Web surfers, and is counting on the Department of Commerce to make it a reality. As CBS News reports, the so-called "trusted identity" project is part of the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace, which the Obama administration is currently drafting. White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt says ...

The Obama administration is pushing for the creation of a new 'Privacy Policy Office,' which would be charged with the task of putting together an online "privacy bill of rights" for all Americans. The proposals were outlined in a report from the Department of Commerce, which called for the development of a new "framework" to protect consumers from data-gathering, third-party companies. The ...

We already knew that the FBI was pushing to expand its online wiretapping capacities. Now, the agency has apparently taken its campaign to Silicon Valley. As the New York Times reports, FBI Director Robert Mueller met Tuesday with several tech companies -- including Facebook and Google -- to discuss a possible expansion to current legislation that would make it easier for federal agencies to ...

President Obama knows exactly how to get American students interested in math and science: video games. As Game Informer reports, Obama has now launched a new program called the National STEM Video Game Challenge, a competition that encourages America's students to use their math, science and engineering skills to design video games. The event, which is being held by the Joan Ganz Cooney ...

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials patrolling the Mexican border will soon have an extra set of eyes to keep watch over our frontiers with the launch of a new fleet of Predator drones. As Reuters reports, the first wave of unmanned aircraft will take off from Corpus Christi tomorrow, and will allow border protection agents to remotely conduct surveillance over the entire U.S.-Mexican ...

With two wars, an oil spill and a stagnant economy on his political agenda, President Obama is, in all likelihood, busier than you. Now, though, you can at least pretend like you lead the free world, by adding the POTUS's daily schedule to your own iCal. As part of its efforts to promote a more open government, the White House has just published the President's complete schedule for all to see, ...

In Washington, the Federal Register is regular reading for most lawyers and lobbyists eager to catch up on the latest policy proposals, regulations and public meeting notices. For most people outside the Beltway, though, the Register's arcane legal jargon renders the weekday compilation virtually indecipherable. Now, as part of its ongoing campaign to more directly engage voters and enhance ...

With the release of its Afghan War Diary, Wikileaks has just perpetrated what many are calling one of the largest leaks in military history. Comprising nearly 92,000 classified reports from Afghanistan, the Diary sheds new light on the challenges that the U.S. and coalition forces face on the ground, exposing the conflict as more dire than most may have imagined. The documents reveal, among other ...

The Obama administration is making a major push to improve the state of broadband in the U.S., and to make large swaths of the wireless spectrum available for mobile data services. A full 500 Mhz of spectrum (nearly double what is available now) is expected to be freed up over the next ten years and be auctioned off primarily to broadband companies. The effort should create jobs, in both ...

The Obama '08 campaign helped to pioneer the use of mobile applications in political campaigns. Now, the remnants of that grassroots group, Organizing for America (OFA), is releasing a new iPhone and iPad app that will connect voters with Democratic representatives and candidates -- just in time for the fall elections. The official OFA app has all the features you'd expect from a political ...

For the first time in U.S. history, the federal government has a coordinated strategy for protecting the intellectual property of American companies both here and abroad. The Department of Justice and the FBI will be working closely to enact 30 recommendations put together by the Obama administration, including closely monitoring foreign websites, especially in China, for pirated American music, ...