With data-breach scandals fading in public memory, data brokers and federal officials Thurs. came to the defense of the industry as crucial for investigations and massive efforts such as Hurricane Katrina relief. They spoke on the first day of 2 of a workshop by the Dept. of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Privacy Office. Civil liberties groups and technology experts countered their arguments, ranging from skepticism of the usefulness of young data- mining technologies to criticisms of federal agencies’ implementations of decades-old Privacy Act provisions in contracting with data brokers.
The National Assn. of Realtors (NAR) was slapped with a Justice Dept. antitrust suit alleging its policies bar online brokers from offering better services and lower costs to consumers. The complaint was filed in U.S. Dist. Court, Chicago, after 2 years of negotiations over a digital divide between old-school real estate agents and colleagues who embrace the Internet. Simultaneously, NAR unveiled a revised policy that “continues to discriminate against innovative brokers and does not resolve the department’s concerns,” the govt. said. “The purchase of a home is one of the most significant financial decisions a family can make, and NAR’s policy stifles competition to advantage some of its members at the expense of home buyers and sellers across the country,” said Assistant Attorney Gen. Bruce McDonald: “Consumers benefit when real estate brokers are free to compete vigorously by offering innovative services.” In most markets, brokers share listings via the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) -- a joint venture among competing brokers, Justice said. Using a local MLS lets a broker show clients all properties for sale in a community. Lately, to make buying and selling property more efficient, some brokers have begun giving customers password-protected access to MLS databases. But, Justice said in its suit, NAR throttles competition by requiring NAR-affiliated MLS listers to let brokers withhold listings from other brokers’ sites via an “opt out.” This enables more traditionally minded brokers to block competitors’ customers from seeing all MLS listings, officials said. Justice wants to ensure NAR policy doesn’t let old-school agents deprive consumers of benefits that would flow from technology-aided competition. NAR said its policy is “fair, pro-consumer, pro-competitive and accommodates innovation.” After months of negotiations with Justice, the group said it, can’t understand why Justice still filed suit. Changes incorporated into the revised policy respond directly to concerns the govt. raised, the group said. NAR called its revised policy a win-win for buyers and sellers. The court will determine a pretrial schedule once NAR files a response to the govt. suit, Justice said. The NetChoice Coalition, which includes trade groups, e- commerce firms and consumers, applauded DoJ’s suit against NAR. “This is a case of the big brokers using their state licensing leverage to restrict the competition, innovation, and discounting made possible by the Internet and new technologies,” Exec. Dir. Steve DelBianco said.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted to its Web site a trade update regarding Hurricane Katrina, highlights of which are provided below:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted to its Web site the automation requirements for its voluntary test of the submission of electronic Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ) admission applications, including record layouts, mandatory fields, error messages, and other programming details.
According to The Journal of Commerce, the Intermodal Container Inspection System (ICIS), developed by a San Diego-based company and a Hong Kong container terminal association has been extended beyond its six-month trial run in order to give Department of Homeland Security officials and congressional staff more time to see the system in action. The article states that the ICIS project is designed to record data from a container and collect a gamma-ray image of its interior as the truck approaches the terminal gate. (See ITT's Online Archives or 08/10/05 news, 05081005 for earlier mention of this 100% scanning system.)(JoC Online, 08/26/05, www.joc.com )
The State Department has issued a final rule, effective August 29, 2005, which makes various amendments to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) which are highlighted as follows:
In a letter to the FCC Tues., the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) called for the FCC to investigate whether communications carriers are adequately protecting individuals’ data. In the letter, EPIC said it had found 40 companies that offer to sell telephone billing records or other confidential information to the public. “Accordingly, we are petitioning the FCC to initiate a new rulemaking to establish higher safeguards for telephone records information,” EPIC said.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted to its Web site a new "Trade Engagement Biweekly Reports" which summarize topics discussed during workshops held to develop the business requirements for Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) Release 5.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has recently posted to its Web site its quarterly report on the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) entitled Report to Congress: The Automated Commercial Environment. This report is dated March 31, 2005 and covers the January 1, 2005 - March 31, 2005 period.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection's (CBP's) Office of Information and Technology has posted a notice to its Web site containing a list, as of August 17, 2005, of companies/persons offering data processing services to the trade community for the Automated Broker Interface (ABI).