Respondents to a Do Not Track discussion poll asking how and if the World Wide Web Coalition-facilitated group should continue have expressed a desire to forge ahead with W3C talks, we found based on publicly posted comments and interviews with stakeholders. But some respondents and stakeholders interviewed expressed reservations at the group’s ability to produce usable DNT guidelines, with several calling for total disbandment. The poll closes roughly three weeks after Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) pulled out of the talks (WID Sept 18 p1) and decided to start its own series of discussions, which begin Thursday with a meeting in San Francisco.

Blocked access to the FCC’s website and databases due to the government shutdown is already having an effect on low-power FM hopefuls, LPFM advocates and attorneys said. A canceled webinar that was scheduled earlier this week and a lack of tools that are otherwise available on the agency website are raising concerns among some applicants as they try to polish their applications, they said.

A company that asked the FTC to find its parental verification technology falls under the agency’s Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act rule rebutted two privacy groups’ criticism. The reasons the Center for Digital Democracy and Electronic Privacy Information Center give for wanting the commission to reject the COPPA request “are based on invalid assumptions and faulty analysis,” wrote AssertID President Keith Dennis in a blog post on the company’s website Friday (http://bit.ly/14PEbq9). Using Facebook to verify that someone’s a parent, and therefore can give a kid under 13 permission to register with a website or mobile app, is based on “extensive academic research,” he wrote. “Our method also requires a parent to divulge less information than other approved” parental verification methods, Dennis wrote. CDD and EPIC make “some valid points,” and it’s correct that the company only lets parents verify their identity using a credit card for “premium” services, he said. The website or mobile app operator should be able to choose to bypass credit-card verification, which costs more than other sorts of identification checks, Dennis said. “The alternative is for AssertID to raise the pricing of our basic service offering thereby forcing all Operators to incur the costs of the alternate verification methods.” Dennis had no comment about criticism of AssertID’s plan by other COPPA participants (CD Sept 26 p20). CDD and EPIC will meet with FTC officials about the groups’ concerns, CDD Executive Director Jeff Chester told us. “We look forward to the FTC’s investigation, and addressing the objections” from the two groups, he said. “Companies can’t expect that they'll get a free pass to help children be targeted online.”

A company that asked the FTC to find its parental verification technology falls under the agency’s Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act rule rebutted two privacy groups’ criticism. The reasons the Center for Digital Democracy and Electronic Privacy Information Center give for wanting the commission to reject the COPPA request “are based on invalid assumptions and faulty analysis,” wrote AssertID President Keith Dennis in a blog post on the company’s website Friday (http://bit.ly/14PEbq9). Using Facebook to verify that someone’s a parent, and therefore can give a kid under 13 permission to register with a website or mobile app, is based on “extensive academic research,” he wrote. “Our method also requires a parent to divulge less information than other approved” parental verification methods, Dennis wrote. CDD and EPIC make “some valid points,” and it’s correct that the company only lets parents verify their identity using a credit card for “premium” services, he said. The website or mobile app operator should be able to choose to bypass credit-card verification, which costs more than other sorts of identification checks, Dennis said. “The alternative is for AssertID to raise the pricing of our basic service offering thereby forcing all Operators to incur the costs of the alternate verification methods.” Dennis had no comment about criticism of AssertID’s plan by other COPPA participants (WID Sept 26 p11). CDD and EPIC will meet with FTC officials about the groups’ concerns, CDD Executive Director Jeff Chester told us. “We look forward to the FTC’s investigation, and addressing the objections” from the two groups, he said. “Companies can’t expect that they'll get a free pass to help children be targeted online.”

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., is expanding his investigation into the ways data brokers collect and pass on personal information they gather from surveys, sweepstakes and questionnaires, he said in a Wednesday news release. He said he sent letters this week to 12 popular personal finance, health and family focused websites that “may collect detailed or sensitive information about a consumer’s health or financial status.” Privacy advocates said the letters should spur more regulatory action from Congress, the FTC and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Representatives of those agencies had no comment on the timeline for further regulatory action.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., is expanding his investigation into the ways data brokers collect and pass on personal information they gather from surveys, sweepstakes and questionnaires, he said in a Wednesday news release. He said he sent letters this week to 12 popular personal finance, health and family focused websites that “may collect detailed or sensitive information about a consumer’s health or financial status.” Privacy advocates said the letters should spur more regulatory action from Congress, the FTC and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Representatives of those agencies had no comment on the timeline for further regulatory action.

A Democratic member of the House Intelligence Committee introduced a bill Friday to create public interest advocates within the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The bill by Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., is one of several introduced this year, and far from the last expected. The legislative frenzy followed leaks this summer outlining in more detail how the National Security Agency collects phone metadata and other information about U.S. citizens, prompting efforts to change the system.

A Democratic member of the House Intelligence Committee introduced a bill Friday to create public interest advocates within the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The bill by Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., is one of several introduced this year, and far from the last expected. The legislative frenzy followed leaks this summer outlining in more detail how the National Security Agency collects phone metadata and other information about U.S. citizens, prompting efforts to change the system.

Ongoing revelations about the National Security Agency’s covert surveillance have seriously stymied the chances of passing cybersecurity legislation in this Congress, experts and issue advocates told us in interviews last week. Though the NSA’s surveillance work has little to do with protecting critical infrastructure, the controversy over the leaked information will make lawmakers reluctant to vote for increased information sharing with federal agencies, they said.

Ongoing revelations about the National Security Agency’s covert surveillance have seriously stymied the chances of passing cybersecurity legislation in this Congress, experts and issue advocates told us in interviews last week. Though the NSA’s surveillance work has little to do with protecting critical infrastructure, the controversy over the leaked information will make lawmakers reluctant to vote for increased information sharing with federal agencies, they said.