White House Planning New Internet Privacy Protections, Watchdog: Report

Wall Street Journal:

The Obama Administration is preparing a stepped-up approach to policing Internet privacy that calls for new laws and the creation of a new position to oversee the effort, according to people familiar with the situation.

The strategy is expected to be unveiled in a report being issued by the U.S. Commerce Department in coming weeks, these people said. The report isn't yet final and could change, these people said.

In a related move, the White House has created a special task force that is expected to help transform the Commerce Department recommendations into policy, these people said. The White House task force, set up three weeks ago, is led by Cameron Kerry, the brother of Sen. John Kerry (D., Mass.) and Commerce Department general counsel, and Christopher Schroeder, assistant attorney general at the Department of Justice.

Read the whole story: Wall Street Journal

Comments

[clearwaterclearmind]

04:00 PM on 11/15/2010

oh boy, can't wait.

are we going to be scanned and groped before we log into our email?

[mashtoe]

02:35 AM on 11/14/2010

Oh please don't let Obama help us. Obama will probably help us by forcing us to all pay some corporations product.

[Vincent Gormley]

10:58 AM on 11/12/2010

Excuse me, Mr. Barton, but the war on privacy was in full force for 8 long years and you said nothing. Republicans seem to only care about their own privacy and that of their corporate donors.

[AlanInGA]

10:26 AM on 11/12/2010

They will probably slip in the "fairness doctrine" also when they pass the bill.

For every conservative, anti big government post there will need to be an equal but opposite liberal, pro government post.

[DevonTexas]

10:05 AM on 11/12/2010

Have they checked with the Republicans to make sure it's okay with them?

[buckunstoppable]

09:39 AM on 11/12/2010

I thought the administration already had a plan to protect us--ask the Telecoms to do the right thing and hope they play nicely. Worked like a dream with the banks, didn't it?

[satanlite]

09:34 AM on 11/12/2010

I don't believe them.
 
I won't believe ANYTHING from this Whitehouse until it's done.

[DevonTexas]

10:06 AM on 11/12/2010

and I'm still skeptical when it is done! LOL

[satanlite]

10:34 AM on 11/12/2010

Absolutely. THat's when you find out how much water was added to the stew.

[terroh8er]

09:33 AM on 11/12/2010

The title said "privacy protections," but the article says "policing." i should have known this was code for less privacy

[AlanInGA]

09:19 AM on 11/12/2010

I do not trust this new agency.

We need a new agency to keep an eye on that agency.

[jasdmd0]

09:06 AM on 11/12/2010

And how long will it be until an "internet usage tax" is proposed???

[Grunty1]

09:21 AM on 11/12/2010

That's already being proposed.... by the utilities.
That's why we need net neutrality.

[KazooDan]

09:23 AM on 11/12/2010

How do you feel about all these private enterprises profiting from what is basically a government invention?

[Dennis Ridnouer]

09:03 AM on 11/12/2010

Just what we need, more regulation and the staff it take to administer them. Is there no end to government growth?

[KazooDan]

09:29 AM on 11/12/2010

You're right. The government shouldn't have wasted all that money INVENTING the internet, only to allow private enterprises to profit from it.

[KennebunkportIndependent]

09:31 AM on 11/12/2010

That was Tim Berners Lee, who was British when he invented the world wide web.

America did not invent the internet.

[MajorMalfunction]

09:02 AM on 11/12/2010

Is there any part of our lives that the government does not want to control? Will people ever understand again what liberty and freedom are?

[Grunty1]

09:22 AM on 11/12/2010

If you don't want the government involved in the internet, stop using it.
 
They developed it, after all.

[KennebunkportIndependent]

09:32 AM on 11/12/2010

Wrong.

[MajorMalfunction]

09:01 AM on 11/12/2010

Obama plans to spy on us even more than Bush.

[KennebunkportIndependent]

09:32 AM on 11/12/2010

Yessir.  You think that built in webcam is off, don't you??

[frappe]

08:54 AM on 11/12/2010

Let's make Net Neutrality unassailable, too!!! (Why is it that corporate interests are constantly trying to change this, year after year. Make it so that it can't be changed or attacked.)

[PARepublican]

09:06 AM on 11/12/2010

Wait a minute, I thought having internet access is a RIGHT. Or am I stretching this a little bit for you Dems.

[frappe]

09:11 AM on 11/12/2010

...And why must you Repubs have this insatiable need to control everything that isn't nailed down?

[Grunty1]

09:23 AM on 11/12/2010

Don't worry. We already know that Rushpublicans and logic go together like ducks and wheat threshers.

[GardenerNorCal]

08:46 AM on 11/12/2010

The Commerce Department is in charge of this? Then I'll forecast that any rules that are made will be in the corporate interests not Main St.'s.

[PARepublican]

09:09 AM on 11/12/2010

You need to think about this for a minute. Look what they did with the HC reform, put it under the commerce department. Brilliant move if you ask me. The White House can now say it is for the good of the public. If they did it any other way it would not fly.

[KennebunkportIndependent]

09:34 AM on 11/12/2010

I think it's a typo - they meant Chamber of Commerce.