White House Internet privacy committee puts out charter

The White House's inter-agency committee on Internet privacy will come up with a white paper and policy and legislative guidelines in its two-year term. White House Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra, Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra and Senior Adviser on Technology Philip Wiser said the group would draw members from more than a dozen agencies to look at privacy issues that stem from electronic health records, smart electricity grids and cloud computing.

The committee's main tasks are:

• To produce a white paper from policy work taking place at the Commerce Department and Federal Trade Commission. The FTC is expected to release a report within weeks with policy recommendations on how to protect Internet users from harmful business practices. The charter is sensitive to business needs, with White House officials saying the group will "examine the role of governments in ensuring that national regimes do not unduly impede the innovation and efficiency gains derived from leveraging a globalized network."
• The group will come up with "general principles" for a domestic and global Internet privacy framework. That framework will reflect the work of White House efforts on cybersecurity and anti-counterfeiting.
• The group will be the first stop for any government statements on privacy.