Congress will still need to act on government surveillance, several members said Friday after President Barack Obama’s policy speech at the Department of Justice. They pointed to hearings and bills on the horizon, as observers offered mixed reactions to the president’s set of proposals. In his 45-minute talk, Obama initiated several changes to the programs and expressed longer-term goals. He did not immediately end the bulk collection of phone metadata, currently authorized by Patriot Act Section 215, nor did he immediately shift the storage of such metadata to phone companies or a third party, as his independent review group recommended last month.

Congress will still need to act on government surveillance, several members said Friday after President Barack Obama’s policy speech at the Department of Justice. They pointed to hearings and bills on the horizon, as observers offered mixed reactions to the president’s set of proposals. In his 45-minute talk, Obama initiated several changes to the programs and expressed longer-term goals. He did not immediately end the bulk collection of phone metadata, currently authorized by Patriot Act Section 215, nor did he immediately shift the storage of such metadata to phone companies or a third party, as his independent review group recommended last month.

For the second time in four years, the FCC failed to convince the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that it had authority to impose net neutrality rules on broadband ISPs. The anti-discrimination and anti-blocking rules in the agency’s December 2010 net neutrality order were indistinguishable from prohibited common carrier restrictions, said the decision (http://1.usa.gov/1m0UQPi). Chairman Tom Wheeler’s FCC has already faced renewed calls to reclassify broadband Internet as a Title II service.

For the second time in four years, the FCC failed to convince the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that it had authority to impose net neutrality rules on broadband ISPs. The anti-discrimination and anti-blocking rules in the agency’s 2010 net neutrality order were indistinguishable from prohibited common carrier restrictions, said the decision (http://1.usa.gov/1m0UQPi). Chairman Tom Wheeler’s FCC has already faced renewed calls to reclassify broadband Internet as a Title II service.

How proposed changes to HTML5 could affect online user experience was disputed among open Web advocates after MPAA said it joined the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) (WID Jan 9 p13). Advocates differed in interviews Wednesday and Thursday about the degree to which the proposed use of encrypted media extensions (EME) for the digital rights management (DRM) standard in HTML5 would affect the control Web users have over their content. MPAA is seen as a champion of the EME, which, for some, would strangle the free Web principles the W3C claims to uphold, they said.

Accounts of the status of a long-awaited surveillance bill differed drastically last week, with top Republicans suggesting the bill may hit the House floor in 2014 while a Democrat declared it dead. Don’t expect any major House Intelligence Committee surveillance proposals any time soon, a Democratic committee member told us. House Republican leadership killed an overhaul the committee was developing, choosing instead to defer to the House Judiciary Committee, where the more “aggressive” USA Freedom Act is under consideration, said Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn. The Intelligence and Judiciary committees share jurisdiction over the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). But Republicans have pushed back against this idea and insisted the bill will be alive and well in 2014.

Accounts of the status of a long-awaited surveillance bill differed drastically last week, with top Republicans suggesting the bill may hit the House floor in 2014 while a Democrat declared it dead. Don’t expect any major House Intelligence Committee surveillance proposals any time soon, a Democratic committee member told us. House Republican leadership killed an overhaul the committee was developing, choosing instead to defer to the House Judiciary Committee, where the more “aggressive” USA Freedom Act is under consideration, said Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn. The Intelligence and Judiciary committees share jurisdiction over the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). But Republicans have pushed back against this idea and insisted the bill will be alive and well in 2014.

President Barack Obama suggested the U.S. might be able to accomplish its intelligence goals by other means than the Patriot Act Section 215 phone metadata surveillance, he told reporters at a news conference Friday before leaving for Hawaii. He had received 46 recommendations from a five-member review group he appointed on Wednesday (CD Dec 19 p4) -- recommendations that criticized the efficacy of the National Security Agency program, urged industry or a third party to hold the metadata and to change the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to allow for a public advocate, among other changes. AT&T, meanwhile, followed Verizon’s lead (CD Dec 20 p1) and said it will also post transparency reports.

President Barack Obama suggested the U.S. might be able to accomplish its intelligence goals by other means than the Patriot Act Section 215 phone metadata surveillance, he told reporters at a press conference Friday before leaving for Hawaii. He had received 46 recommendations from a five-member review group he appointed on Wednesday -- recommendations that criticized the efficacy of the National Security Agency program, urged industry or a third party to hold the metadata and to change the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to allow for a public advocate, among other changes. AT&T, meanwhile, followed Verizon’s lead and said it will also post transparency reports.

The NTIA-convened facial recognition technology multistakeholder discussions (CD Dec 4 p10) might be the first of several concurrent NTIA talks on key privacy issues, App Developers Alliance Vice President-Law Policy and Government Affairs Tim Sparapani told us after the agency’s announcement Tuesday. Several who took part in the NTIA’s first round of privacy discussions -- which produced a mobile app transparency code of conduct -- told us lessons learned from that process will streamline the coming discussions that commence in February. “I suspect NTIA will be doing more than one of these at a time in short order,” Sparapani said. But “any speculation on a timetable would be foolish,” when it comes to the facial recognition talks, Sparapani said.