Tag Archives: Center for Democracy and Technology

Protection of online privacy moves forward in bipartisan vote!

Posted on November 29, 2012 by | 1 Comment

The Senate Judiciary Committee (SJC) took an important bipartisan vote today to reform the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (ECPA) and strengthen the privacy protection of emails and documents stored online in the “cloud.” Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), chair of the SJC, spearheaded an amendment to the existing law to require that the government seek warrants before law enforcement, or other federal regulatory bodies, may obtain personal online records from Internet service providers and third party providers. The current ECPA law allows investigators access to emails and other private online information through third parties without judicial approval.

ALA’s commitment to privacy grows out of the library community’s deep principles to protect library users’ reading and online records, unless there is judicial approval and probable cause. In the weeks leading up to today’s markup, the American Library Association (ALA) worked with allies including the Digital Due Process Coalition and the Vanishing Rights Coalition, to advocate for necessary ECPA reforms.  Since ECPA was passed in 1986, several changes in technology have occurred, such as the increasingly popular use of cloud technologies and third party storage services.

With only three weeks left in the current Congress, several steps need to be taken before the bill is completely amended. The bill will now go to the Senate for a floor vote. Additional steps require action in the House and signing by President Obama.  But the markup is a major step forward for the SJC to approve these reform provisions, even if the issue moves to the next Congress.

This current ECPA reauthorization is actually part of H.R. 2471, a reauthorization of the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), also passed in the 1980’s.  The House bill started only as an update of the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA.) The Committee passed an amendment by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) requiring customers to opt-in to any video sharing agreement, and that any advanced consent to share video viewing information must be renewed after two years – another good step to protect privacy of personal records.

“The American Library Association thanks Senators Leahy, Feinstein, Franken, Cornyn, Lee and others who recognize the importance of protecting personal information in online activities (ECPA) and pushing reforms for consumers’ video-viewing records,” said Lynne Bradley, director of ALA’s Office of Government Relations. “We are ready to work with these champions and others to move these reforms forward in the coming weeks and months.”

Senator Leahy’s statement is now available online.

For more information, visit:

About Lynne Bradley

Lynne works in the ALA Washington Office and is director of ALA's Office of Government Relations.

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Posted in Intellectual Freedom, Library Advocacy, OGR, Public Libraries, School Libraries

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How an outdated law may endanger your fourth amendment rights

Posted on November 12, 2012 by | 1 Comment

The ALA joins with like-minded groups such as the Center for Democracy and Technology and the Electronic Frontier Foundation in a new campaign to reform the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). The campaign site is VanishingRights.com.

ECPA was last updated in the mid-1980s and describes the lengths that government may go to in order to access private digital information. At a time when cloud computing is taking off and more and more of our daily interactions take place in the cloud, clarity of this law is essential. The government currently claims that our private information that resides in the cloud and the location information that can be accessed via our mobile phones is accessible without a warrant.

We firmly disagree! The 4th amendment reads as follows:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Vanishing Rights is a campaign to help fight for our rights that were guaranteed in the 4th amendment. Now is the time to update ECPA to ensure that we receive privacy in our electronic communications just as we do for a letter sent via the US Postal Service.

Stay tuned as this is predicted to be a fast moving issue!

About Jessica McGilvray

Jessica McGilvary is the Assistant Director of ALA Washington Office's Office of Government Relations (OGR).

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Posted in Intellectual Freedom, Library Advocacy, OGR

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Google fellows connect over lunch and libraries

Posted on August 2, 2012 by | Leave a comment
Brenda Villanueva

Brenda Villanueva, Google Policy Fellow at the National Hispanic Media Coalition, discusses the possibilities and limits of mobile technology.

This summer, when I haven’t been attending hearings and panels, or writing about bookmobiles, I’ve been joining the rest of the Google Policy Fellows at Google’s DC office for occasional events. They’ve been interesting opportunities to learn more about the policy work of an influential company–as well as, rather unexpectedly, about their driverless cars. But there hadn’t been much of a chance to dig into the intersection of information technology policy and libraries (despite that being, of course, the most interesting intersection of all).

Until now!

Yesterday, I organized a lunch and discussion for some of fellow fellows here at the ALA Washington Office. Fellows from the Center for Democracy & Technology, the National Hispanic Media Coalition, the Internet Education Foundation, and the New America Foundation enjoyed a productive conversation with Carrie Russell, Marijke Visser, Larra Clark, and Corey Williams from the ALA Washington Office.

After an overview of the work done by the Office for Information Technology Policy and the Office of Government Relations, our conversation turned immediately to a series of fascinating questions: Given the limitations of mobile technology (e.g., for tasks like homework) are libraries working to encourage wired as well as wireless internet access in communities where the latter dominates? How are libraries adapting to an environment that requires more licensing agreements? How are libraries working to promote digital literacy in traditionally disadvantaged communities? What are the benefits and risks of open access to Congressional Research Service reports? What are the economic benefits of digital literacy? What are the current business models for e-book lending, and how could they change?

Lassana Magassa

Lassana Magassa, Google Policy Fellow at the New America Foundation, talks about his research on digital literacy and the incarcerated.

As we talked, the fellows were introduced to a variety of resources and case studies of libraries doing work in these areas. We discussed some statistics from the new Public Library Funding & Technology Access Study, the Philadelphia Free Library’s hot spots, digital literacy programs in St. Paul and New York, library makerspaces, and more.

In the process, we identified productive overlaps between ALA projects and the fellows’ work, and new ideas and possibilities for collaboration emerged. The conversation got some of the fellows thinking in new ways about libraries as important, influential actors in the information technology ecosystem. And it introduced the ALA Washington Office staff to the exciting work the fellows are doing.

Cards have been exchanged, and resources traded. So hopefully collaboration and cooperation will be just around the corner.

Derek Attig
Google Policy Fellow
Office for Information Technology Policy, ALA Washington Office

About Jacob Roberts

Jacob Roberts is the communications specialist for the ALA Washington Office.

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Posted in Events, OGR, OITP, Telecommunications, Washington Office News

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Cybersecurity bill votes start in three days – Keep the pressure on

Posted on April 20, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Library and privacy supporters: Keep pressuring House members to vote NO on H.R. 3523 and other bills that will restructure our nation’s privacy policies and laws. ALA remains staunchly opposed to this bill.  Petition your elected representatives with the ALA Legislative Action Center.

The major problems remain:

  • CISPA would permit private “entities” (ISPS, utilities, etc.) to share huge amounts of information about our electronic communications with the government without a legal review or warrant;
  • CISPA permits these private providers to provide dumps of information without necessarily anonymizing or aggregating the information to protect personal privacy;
  • CISPA would authorize the National Security Agency (NSA) – an intelligence and military agency – to receive all of the Internet records to be used, not just for cybersecurity, but for other “lawful purposes” as well;
  • CISPA trumps all other privacy laws – state, local and national – if the sharing of the information is deemed “cybersecurity.”

The House of Representatives is still scheduled to address a number of troubling cyber bills during Cybersecurity Week, the week of April 23. One of the most troubling bills remains H.R. 3523, The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act of 2011, CISPA.

At this writing, the text of CISPA is still in flux and behind-the-scene discussions continue. Additional amendments must be filed next Tuesday, April 24, 2012. While things are in great flux, it could be that H.R. 3523 will hit the House floor next Wednesday or Thursday, April 25-26, 2012. This is the key time to keep your calls going into House offices.

Other privacy advocates such as the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Democracy and Technology, Free Press, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Constitution Project also remain in opposition to H.R. 3523. As the ACLU noted in their blog: “The changes are so underwhelming that even the Obama Administration issued a statement [April 18] that their privacy concerns persist.”

The mix of bills in the House emphasizes sharing vast amounts of electronic communications between private service providers (and other “utilities”) and the government. These bills would give immunity and permission to share the traffic on their systems if the information is deemed for “cybersecurity” purposes.

Tell Congress: No Cyber Spying! No CISPA! 

The one improvement we can report is that the specific term “intellectual property” was removed, although there is still too much ambiguity elsewhere in the bill to know for certain that copyright issues couldn’t be swept in with all of the other information sharing activities and purposes.

About Jacob Roberts

Jacob Roberts is the communications specialist for the ALA Washington Office.

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Posted in Cybersecurity, Intellectual Freedom, Library Advocacy, OGR, Telecommunications

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Ask your Representative to vote “NO” on SOPA

Posted on December 13, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Stop SOPA

The clock is ticking and the time to act is NOW to STOP SOPA!  On Thursday, December 15 at 10:00 a.m. (EST) the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary will meet to markup and potentially vote in committee on H.R. 3261, the “Stop Online Piracy Act” or SOPA.  This egregious bill, introduced in October by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), not only threatens the future of the Internet as we know it, it jeopardizes protections currently enjoyed by individual citizens, as well as libraries. The bill has the potential to do significant damage in a number of ways – including the possibility of criminal prosecution of a library for streaming, censorship of internet activity, invasion of privacy rights, and even threatens national cyber security, among others.

With less than 48 hours to markup, what can you do? You can ACT and it’s easy!

  1. Call your member of Congress – we’re targeting the members of the House Judiciary Committee. However, don’t hesitate to call your own member even if they are not on the committee.  The louder and farther the reach of our message at this critical time the better!
  2. Easy, step-by-step instructions on how to place the call, along with talking points to communicate your position, are all available at the ALA’s Legislative Action Center’s (LAC) special alert titled “Ask your Representative to vote “NO” on SOPA” (Talking points included!)
  3. Please complete the LAC “feedback” card after you act.
  4. Tell your colleagues and friends (via email, twitter, Facebook, blogs, etc.) that you acted to help protect the future of the internet on behalf of libraries and those you use them and forward this message or send them the alert so they can act, too!

Additional Related Information:

  • Although a Manger’s Amendment to bill H.R. 3261 (pdf) was submitted on Monday, December 12 by Rep. Smith, the revised language addresses only some of the many significant concerns raised.  The ALA had sent a letter to the U.S. House Judiciary leadership raising specific copyright-related concerns on behalf of libraries.
  • Late last week Reps. Issa (R-CA) and Wyden (D-OR) introduced draft bill language for the “Online Protection & Enforcement of Digital Trade Act” or OPEN.  In the spirit of openness and transparency, they created a web site www.keepthewebopen.com allowing the public to review the draft text and comment.  The ALA, as member of the Library Copyright Alliance (LCA), sent a letter (pdf) thanking the congressmen for the draft bill and for their inclusive public process.  (More attention will be devoted in the coming days and weeks to this draft bill language after the markup on SOPA on Thursday!)
  • Our friends at the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) have done a terrific job collecting the letters to Congress, In the Press and on blogs and the list of organizations and individuals opposing SOPA, if you’d like to track what others are saying.

Calling your U.S. Representative to ask them to vote “NO” on SOPA is easy and an effective way to advocate for libraries and those we serve!

Corey Williams
Associate Director, Office of Government Relations
American Library Association

About Corey Williams

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Posted in Copyright, Cybersecurity, Intellectual Freedom, Library Advocacy, OGR, Telecommunications

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