The balance point between patient privacy and the proper flow of medical information to improve care and reduce costs see-sawed during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday on health IT and privacy. Witnesses agreed on the necessity of privacy protections and a comprehensive framework for privacy and security, but didn’t necessarily agree on the exact approach. “Unfortunately, the balance is neither precise nor clear,” said John Houston, vice president of information security and privacy at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Much of the discussion came back to the HITECH Act incorporated into House economic stimulus legislation last week.

The collapsing economy hasn’t hit the fundraising of tech-oriented nonprofits just yet, according to the early accounting of groups we asked. Most groups didn’t yet have solid numbers calculated for 2008, but they had a good sense of how the year would finally look.

A possible entrant into the U.S. behavioral targeting market made a veiled pitch to regulators at a Pike & Fischer conference on Web 2.0 legal issues Wednesday in Washington. U.K.-based Phorm’s behavioral-targeting tests with British Telecom created a stir with the European Commission before targeting provider NebuAd’s work with U.S. ISPs came to light (WID April 8 p4). Phorm Chief Privacy Officer Brooks Dobbs said its targeting trials have been more consumer-friendly than NebuAd’s. The Senate Commerce Committee’s Sept. 25 hearing on ISP targeting, formally announced late in the day, was already on everyone’s lips at the conference.

Privacy is going in different directions in new browsers released by Google and Microsoft. Privacy activists and some Hill lawmakers long have complained that Internet companies gave users too little control over their browsing data, also storing their query histories for too long. Privacy settings in Google Chrome, released Tuesday, and Internet Explorer 8, released last week, show degrees of responsiveness to those concerns. The edge in privacy protections still seems to rest with Ask.com, whose AskEraser feature prevents data storage by Ask.com itself, though the feature has drawn privacy complaints anyway (WID Jan 24 p3).

European companies would be barred from helping nations quash free speech and Internet access under a July proposal presented in the European Parliament. The draft Global Online Freedom Act has broad support among legislators, but needs European Commission (EC) buy-in to progress, said Jethro van Hardeveld, policy advisor to Dutch MEP Jules Maaten, Alliance for Liberals and Democrats for Europe Group. The EC said ratifying the Lisbon Treaty is the best way to ensure online free expression.

The World Trade Organization provided an update on the Doha Round and posted information on Day 3. WTO Director-General Lamy said that "two days of talks among 30 representative ministers in the "Green Room" have been constructive but discussions in smaller groups are now needed to intensify the negotiations." (WTO press release, dated 07/23/08, available athttp://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news08_e/meet08_summary_23july_e.htm.)

A bill (HR-6357) encouraging a shift from paper to electronic health records passed on voice vote in the House Commerce Committee Wednesday. The committee adopted a substitute version of the measure the Health Subcommittee approved last month (WID June 26 p4) giving more detail on privacy, record-keeping and consumer protection provisions. Congress may not have time to complete work on the complex bill this year, but lawmakers agreed the House bill reflects important bipartisan agreements that lay groundwork for action in the next Congress.

A bill (HR-6357) encouraging a shift from paper to electronic health records passed on voice vote in the House Commerce Committee Wednesday. The committee adopted a substitute version of the measure the Health Subcommittee approved last month (CD June 26 p4) giving more detail on privacy, record-keeping and consumer protection provisions. Congress may not have time to complete work on the complex bill this year, but lawmakers agreed the House bill reflects important bipartisan agreements that lay groundwork for action in the next Congress.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative posted USTR Schwab's July 22nd remarks at the Doha Ministerial in Geneva. Schwab's remarks include a new proposal to limit U.S. agricultural subsidies to $15 billion per year. Senator Grassley, ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee and senior member of the Agriculture Committee, commented on the USTR's $15 billion proposal, and the reaction from leading developing countries that it was not enough. (USTR remarks, dated 07/22/08, available at http://www.ustr.gov/assets/Document_Library/Press_Releases/2008/July/asset_upload_file409_15037.pdf; Grassley statement, dated 07/22/08, available at http://finance.senate.gov/press/Gpress/2008/prg072208a.pdf.)

The Senate voted 69-28 Wednesday for a bill (HR-6304) to offer retroactive immunity to telecom carriers alleged to have aided the government in post-Sept. 11 surveillance. The bill goes to President Bush for an expected signature. Civil liberties groups condemned the bill, saying they look forward to reviving the debate next Congress. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., a foe of the bill, vowed to take up the issue when dealing with reauthorization of the Patriot Act.