The Washington Post reports today about the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s ongoing inquiry into the online tracking activity of various internet companies. The Post reports that some internet companies have been using targeted-advertising technology without the explicit consent of consumers. More than a third of the 33 companies that received letters have indicated they do not conduct behavioral advertising - advertising based on users’ internet activity based on deep packet inspection.

This investigation started with the Committee sending a letter to Embarq Corporation about a online advertising test conducted with their internet users. The committee also held a hearing on deep packet inspection and it’s privacy implications, which we noted earlier on this blog. The Committee followed this with letters to additional companies, which can be viewed online along with an explanatory press release. The committee has also posted responses that they have received to date. I should note, however, that the link to those letters is not readily available from the Committee’s website - I accessed it through the link in the Washington Post article. Google has made their letter available through their public policy blog.
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CONTENTS

[1] Newsletter Highlights
[2] USACM Member Appointed to Elections Assistance Commission Board
[3] Senate Introduces New Electronic Voting Legislation
[4] FCC Finds Comcast Violated Net Neutrality
[5] House Hears Testimony on IT R&D, Executive Branch Seeks Input on Program
[6] Universities Face Peer-to-Peer Monitoring in Reauthorized Higher Education Act
[7] House Votes to Extend E-verify Program
[8] About USACM

[An archive of all previous editions of Washington Update is available at
http://www.acm.org/usacm/update/]
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Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) recently appointed USACM-EC member Barbara Simon to the Board of Advisors for the Election Assistance Commission. USACM had nominated her along with three other USACM members to serve on the board in the positions reserved for technical and scientific professionals. Our release on Simons appointment is below, and you can find our letter on the nominations here.

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Part of the ongoing debates over electronic employment verification systems is that the current basic pilot, or E-Verify program, is set to expire later this year. While there is still some disagreement over how the program might be expanded, I am aware of no one in Congress advocating for the program to be discontinued.

The House has taken the first step in extending (not expanding) this program when it recently passed HR 6633. The extension will be for five years (through October 31 November 30, 2013). The additional provisions of the bill would establish a stronger cost sharing relationship between the Social Security Administration (which is responsible for one of the databases used by the basic pilot), and the Department of Homeland Security. The inconsistent payment to the Social Security Administration, for basic pilot expenses has been a sticking point with some members of Congress. The bill also establishes two studies, one evaluating errors in the non-confirmation of employment eligibility (and the impacts of those errors), and the other focusing on the costs and efforts for small businesses to comply with the basic pilot reporting requirements.

With the expiration of this program coming soon, this bill actually has a chance of passing prior to the election recess (Congress is currently in recess until after Labor Day). But the Senate has been shy towards immigration since their last attempt at major immigration reform, so it’s not a certainty.

July 30
Hearing:
The Senate Rules and Administration Committee will hold a hearing on S. 3212, the Bipartisan Electronic Voting Reform Act of 2008.
10 a.m., 301 Russell Building

July 31
Hearing:
The Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services and International Security of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will hold a hearing on federal government information technology planning.
9:30 a.m., 342 Dirksen Building

The House Science and Technology Committee will hold an oversight hearing on the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development Program (NITRD).
10 a.m., 2318 Rayburn Building

Update July 27
The Washington Post ran an article on Friday describing a case of an internet service provider conducting deep packet inspection on customers in Kansas. Notice was affected through a change in the company’s privacy policy on its website. Subscribers were offered the opportunity to opt out of the test, but some lawmakers are of the opinion that is insufficient in these situations, that the intrusion on privacy is sufficient to require participants to opt in to the process.

You can read the letter to the internet service provider from the House Energy and Commerce Committee, as well as the ISP’s response letters, online.

Original Post
As computing power and data storage increase, the limits of what are possible with computer science change and new capacities emerge. Part of the new trends in online advertising appears to take advantage of one such change - the relative ease of deep packet inspection (DPI).

A brief description of packets and DPI (those more familiar with the topic can skip ahead). Internet traffic is typically broken down into packets - bursts of data that include routing information. So, if we were looking at an email message, for example, the message wouldn’t travel from sender to receiver as one piece, but as a number of packets, which were routed through the network by routers. Packets are already inspected by routers to determine where they should be sent. This is shallow packet inspection, and isn’t that far off from a post office or shipping service doing spot checks of pieces of mail to make sure they are headed to where they are supposed to go.
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Update July 23 - Additional Health IT hearing on July 23

July 22
Hearing:
The House Education and Labor Committee will hold a hearing on business and education partnerships in STEM education.
2 p.m., 2175 Rayburn Building

July 23
Hearing:
The House Select Intelligence Committee will hold a closed roundtable discussion on cybersecurity.
10 a.m., H-405 Capitol Building

Markup:
The House Energy and Commerce Committee will markup pending legislation on health information technology.
10 a.m., 2123 Rayburn Building

July 24
Hearing:
The Health Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee will hold a hearing on promoting health information technology.
10 a.m., 1100 Longworth Building

July 15
Hearing:
The Senate Finance Committee will hold a hearing on intellectual property rights and competitiveness.
10 a.m., 215 Dirksen Building

The Research and Science Education Subcommittee of the House Science and Technology Committee will hold a hearing on international science and technology cooperation and the role of universities and non-governmental organizations.
10 a.m., 2318 Rayburn Building

The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing about online advertising and the proposed Google-Yahoo agreement.
10:30 a.m., 226 Dirksen Building
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CONTENTS

[1] Newsletter Highlights
[2] USACM Members Meet with Government Officials
[3] ACM Policy Director Addresses Computer Science Education Roundtable
[4] EAC Outlines Possible Next Steps for VVSG
[5] Congress Introduces Online Accessibility Bill
[6] Supplemental Appropriations Boost Science and Technology Funding
[7] About USACM

[An archive of all previous editions of Washington Update is available at
http://www.acm.org/usacm/update/]
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July 8
Press Briefing:
The Center for Democracy and Technology will hold a news briefing on online tracking practices.
11 a.m., 1634 Eye Street, Washington, D.C.

July 9
Hearing:
The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee will hold a hearing about online advertising and privacy.
10 a.m., 253 Russell Building

Yesterday President Bush signed into law a bipartisan agreement providing supplemental funding for 2008. Most of the funding went toward operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, but Congress and the President agreed to include over $330 million to fund basic research at several Federal agencies. While the final figures are well below what the President originally proposed for 2008, this is still a win for science.

In May, I incorrectly predicted that this legislation was likely headed for a veto over budget politics. This is one of those cases where I’m glad to be wrong. Last year Congress flat funded several key physical science agencies in fiscal year 2008 (FY08) – namely the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Department of Energy Office of Science. Recognizing that the previous agreement shorted science funding, Congress and the President agreed to boost some of the agencies:

• $62.5 million for Department of Energy’s Office of Science
• $62.5 million for NASA
• $62.5 million for National Science Foundation
• $150 million for National Institutes of Health

Funding for the National Science Foundation is split 70/30 between education and research programs at the Foundation with $40 million going toward the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program, which “seeks to encourage talented science, technology, engineering, and mathematics majors and professionals to become K-12 mathematics and science teachers” and the balance presumably split among the research directorates.

Notably the National Institute of Standards and Technology did not receive any supplemental funding, which is disappointing.

Congress and the President did a lot of saber rattling over busting the budget and supporting the troops, but in the end they found a good old-fashioned compromise that at least patches some of the FY08 mess. What is heartening is that both parties thought science was enough of a priority to fund it among the many competing priorities clamoring for supplemental funding. Whether that holds in fiscal year 2009 funding fight is another matter entirely.

Representative Markey recently introduced the 21st Century Communications and Accessibility Act, HR 6320. This bill focuses on amending the Communications Act to ensure that new Internet-enabled telephone and video services and equipment are accessible to and usable by people with disabilities and closes existing gaps in telecommunications laws. These services would include captioning or video description service for streaming video, text support for emergency services and ensuring hearing aid compatibility for internet services. Congressman Markey provides a summary of the bill, in addition to the text of the legislation.

This bill is an interesting complement to the recent ACM Policy Statement on Internet Accessibility, which we released earlier this year. In that statement, we recommended the extension of accessibility standards while minimizing regulation, which appears to be a major goal of this bill. We will watch this bill closely as the year progresses.

Last week the Board of Advisors of the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) met over two days to discuss pending and new business. While this meeting (and most meetings of the EAC and its boards) covered many topics, the items having to do with the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG) are worth passing along.

The staff at the National Institute of Standards and Technology was asked to investigate several technical questions related to the VVSG. They are:

Alternatives to Software Independence (SI)
Standards for Ballot-on-Demand systems
Impact of VVSG on vote-by-phone
Consequences of separately testing and certifying election system components
Impact of VVSG on early voting and vote centers
Alternatives to goal level requirements in the VVSG (requirements that state a goal but are not easily testable - if testable at all)

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Update June 24 - Health IT hearing added for June 25

June 24
Hearing:
The Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee of the House Science and Technology Committee will hold a hearing on skilled work and globalization. This is the second in a series of hearings that started in May.
1 p.m., 2318 Rayburn Building

June 25
Hearing:
The Subcommittee on the Constitution of the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on laptop searches of returning Americans.
9 11 a.m., 226 Dirksen Building

Markup:
The Health Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on the PROTECHT Act, which concerns health information technology.
10 a.m., 2123 Rayburn Building
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Update, June 19
June 18 Senate Commerce Committee hearing postponed

June 17
Hearing:
The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on protecting intellectual property.
10 a.m., 226 Dirksen Building

Meeting:
The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars holds a briefing on science and technology policy in the next generation. RSVP 202-691-4016.
8:30 a.m., 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

The Board of Advisors for the Election Assistance Commission will meet (continuing June 18).
10 a.m., Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill, 400 New Jersey Avenue, NW.

June 18
Hearing:
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will hold a hearing on protecting personal information.
10 a.m., 342 Dirksen Building

June 19
Meeting:
The Election Assistance Commission will hold a public meeting.
1 p.m., 1225 New York Avenue NW, Suite 150.

Update June 10 - Judiciary Subcommittee hearing now scheduled for 10 a.m.

Afternoon hearing added for June 11

June 10
Hearing:
The Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law of the House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on electronic employment verification.
9 10 a.m., 2141 Rayburn Building

June 11
Meeting:
The Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee of the Department of Homeland Security will meet.
9 a.m., Hilton Arlington Hotel, 950 North Stafford Street, Arlington, Virginia

Hearing:
The Consumer Affairs, Insurance and Automotive Safety Subommittee of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee will hold a hearing on spyware.
3 p.m., 253 Russell Building

Last week we started a series of posts highlighting our high-level comments on the the Election Assistance Commission’s Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG). Our first post focused on the important new concept – Software Independence. Today’s post focuses on a related new concept – the Innovation Class.

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June 4
Hearing:
The Health Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on draft health information technology.
10 a.m., 2123 Rayburn Building

Three weeks ago, USACM filed detailed comments with the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) on its draft of the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines. (Quick Review: These are proposed Federal standards for voting equipment, which are voluntary in nature but some states require manufacturers follow them.) Realizing that many people will not be able to read through our filing, we are excerpting portions of our high-level comments on some of key concepts in the EAC’s draft.

Arguably the most important change from previous standards is that all machines must be “software independent” to be in conformance with the standards. The VVSG defines this concept as follows:

This can be translated as the voting system has to have some system that allows for verification and/or auditing of an election result without relying on the voting machine’s software. USACM strongly supports this requirement and urges the EAC to retain it in the final document:

The concept of software independence may be one of the most controversial proposals in the new standards and is sure to come under fire. How the EAC decides to proceed with it may determine how voting systems will look for the foreseeable future.

Some events highlight the political silliness often infecting Washington better than others. The current fight over the supplemental war funding bill for this fiscal year is one of those occasions. The Washington Times aptly summed up the silliness when it ran the line: “House Passes War Supplemental Without War Funding.” The issue at hand is the high-stakes budget fight between Congress and the President on providing supplemental funding this year for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and, once again, research funding is caught somewhere in the middle.

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May 21
Hearing:
The House Education and Labor Committee will hold a hearing on the recently released National Mathematics Report
10 a.m., 2175 Rayburn Building

May 22
Hearing:
The Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight of the House Science and Technology Committee will hold a hearing on globalization of technology.
10 a.m., 2318 Rayburn Building

We wanted to point out two Issue Briefs available from USACM. The Issue Briefs are intended as short distillations of established USACM policy on various issues. More detailed explanations of USACM positions on these issues can be found in the relevant issue area of our website.

The two new Issue Briefs are on Electronic Employment Verification Systems and REAL ID. We will make additional Issue Briefs available online as they are developed.

CONTENTS

[1] Newsletter Highlights
[2] USACM Chair Testifies on Electronic Employment Verification
[3] USACM Applauds New Voting System Standards
[4] USACM Cautions Against Filtering
[5] Emergency E-Voting Legislation Goes Down In House
[6] Advanced Placement Computer Science Exams Change
[7] National Academies Releases Interim Report on Voter Registration
Databases
[8] About USACM
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