INTERNET
Virginia's Localities Urged to Go Online (WP)
Web Policy Group Studies Issues Of Multilingual Domain
Names (WSJ)
PRIVACY
Privacy Groups Urge Limits On Consumer Data Sharing (WSJ)
INTERNET
VIRGINIA'S LOCALITIES URGED TO GO ONLINE
Issue: Internet
At a meeting of his E-Communities Task Force in Charlottesville today, Virginia Gov. James S. Gilmore III (R) plans to present guidelines on how communities can best use the Internet to improve social well-being and economic growth. The guidelines recommend that local elected officials move aggressively to create online communities. "If you believe that the Internet drives power, choice and control to the individual, you have to go to the most local level of government with which a person interacts," said Donald W. Upson, the state's secretary of technology. But Gilmore will argue that city and county governments should be required to follow the guidelines for establishing Internet portals so that each county uses the same basic approach in making its services accessible over the Internet.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (E05), AUTHOR: Neil Irwin]
(http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A946-2001Mar13.html)
WEB POLICY GROUP STUDIES ISSUES OF MULTILINGUAL DOMAIN
NAMES
Issue: Internet
The Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers(Icann), has established a working group to make policy recommendations concerning new multilingual Internet addresses. So-called multilingual domain
names -- Internet addresses written in languages that don't use the Latin alphabet -- have created controversy because they lack a technical standard to ensure compatibility among competing systems. Icann has expressed fears that the unsanctioned systems could mislead consumers, violate intellectual-property rights and technically hobble the Internet. The question of introducing multilingual domain names
presents a fresh challenge to Icann's authority to act on behalf of the Internet community at a time when the organization faces other obstacles.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (Online), AUTHOR: Kenneth Neil Cukier]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB984532624208630478.htm)
PRIVACY
PRIVACY GROUPS URGE LIMITS ON CONSUMER DATA SHARING
Issue: Privacy
A privacy group has cautioned that companies should better explain how they share customer information with other firms and then let consumers decide if they want their names and addresses given to other companies. This advice was given to Federal Trade Commission in a workshop on how Internet and advertising businesses gather and trade data to create
customer profiles. At the FTC workshop, Ari Schwartz, a policy analyst at the Center for Democracy and Technology, advocated a new technology that makes privacy policy interactive. Companies check off how they use customer information, and customers decide whether they're comfortable with each use. But House Majority Leader Dick Armey said in a prepared statement that the government should get its own house in order before turning its attention to private companies. "If the government is going to monitor the information sharing practices of the private sector," said Rep. Armey (R., Texas), "I'd like to know who's going to monitor the government."
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (Online), AUTHOR: Associated Press]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB984519995392559910.htm)
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