MRA News
-
May 11, 2012Social networking privacy is all the rage these days -- but specifically in the realm of employer-employee relationships. Maryland recently became the first state to pass a law in this area. On May 2, the Governor signed H.B. 964 and S.B. 433 into law as Chapter No. 233. This new law prohibits an employer from requesting or requiring that an employee or applicant disclose any user name, password, or other means for accessing a personal account or service through specified electronic communications devices; prohibits an employer from taking, or...
-
May 10, 2012Going into the House of Representatives floor debate on Census funding this week, MRA and our coalition partners in the Census Project knew we were in for trouble -- but not this much trouble. The House voted to shift some of the Census funding in the Commerce Justice State (CJS) Appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2013 to other programs -- then voted to neuter, and ultimately kill, the American Community Survey (ACS). We were already concerned that the proposed funding for the Census in this legislation was below the Obama Administration's...
-
May 7, 2012The European Commission has released a European Strategy for a Better Internet for Children action plan for protecting children online through a “pan-European framework for electronic identification, authentication and signature (PEFIAS)”. The plan specifically targets teens and younger children in order to prove and verify ages that are provided online—in all forums, desktops, tablets, mobile phones, and game consoles. The European Commission wants parental control technology to be built in as a component of the devices and is also...
-
Apr 27, 2012On April 26, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) approved Advisory Opinion 2012-10, declaring that federal campaign finance and election law supersedes New Hampshire's push poll law, for certain political polls. The New Hampshire statute includes a poorly-drafted provision that is supposed to target "push polls", but actually restricts bona fide research by requiring political polls to disclose the sponsor of the call to the recipient. MRA has been advocating to change the New Hampshire law to protect research, in alliance with the American...
-
Apr 6, 2012In releasing its “Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights” on February 23, the White House proposed to convene a “multistakeholder process” whereby “stakeholders who share an interest in specific markets or business contexts,” come together in “transparent, open forums” to develop enforceable codes of conduct for U.S. companies. It then fell to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to request comments on how best to start implementing that process. So MRA submitted comments on April 3 on our major concerns with how the...
-
Apr 5, 2012In Alaska, Rep. Scott Kawasaki (D-9) reintroduced the “Robo-call Prohibition Act” (H.B. 243, which was H.B. 226 in 2011), which would forbid using “an automated telephone system, device, or facsimile machine for the selection and dialing of telephone numbers and playing of recorded messages if a message is completed to the dialed number for the purpose of: (A) offering goods or services for sale; (B) conveying information on goods or services in soliciting sales or purchases; (C) soliciting information; (D) gathering data or statistics; or (E...
-
Apr 5, 2012LA - Louisiana H.B. 151, which MRA opposed because it would have restricted survey and opinion research calls by or on behalf of political campaigns, was "involuntarily deferred in Committee" on April 3. This means that the committee voted to not hear the measure and must subsequently vote to reconsider the measure after all other measures assigned to that committee are heard. In plain English, H.B. 151 is dead.
-
Apr 2, 2012On March 7, 2012 the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission published its final regulations known as Bill C-28, Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL, formerly known as the Electronic Commerce Protection Act and the Fighting Internet and Wireless Spam Act). CASL establishes rules for the sending of a commercial electronic message (CEM). CASL applies to all forms of electronic messaging, including email, SMS text messages, and messages sent via social networking. CEM applies broadly to any CEM that is sent from or accessed...
-
Mar 27, 2012On March 26, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released “Protecting Consumer Privacy in an Era of Rapid Change”, the agency’s much-anticipated report on consumer data privacy. The Report focuses on three broad principles: Privacy by Design: Build in privacy at every stage of product development; Simplified Choice for Businesses and Consumers: Give consumers the ability to make decisions about their data at a relevant time and context, including through a Do Not Track mechanism…; and Greater Transparency: Make information collection and use...
-
Mar 27, 2012In support of the President's request for $162 million in funding for the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) in Fiscal Year 2013 appropriations, MRA joined with the Friends of NCHS coalition in sending this letter to the chairman and rnaking member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor/HHS.