IP: restriction on federal monitoring of personal use of Internet

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2001 16:14:50 -0800
> To: State and Local Freedom of Information Issues <FOI-L () LISTSERV SYR EDU>
> From: Jim Warren <jwarren () well com>
>
>
> WOW!  With some slippery exceptions, this Act (below) prohibits ANY 
> federal funding ("in this or any other Act"!!!) from being used by "any 
> federal agency" to "collect, review, or create" any "personally 
> identifiable information relating to an individual's access to or use of" 
> any federal agency Internet site or "any nongovernmental Internet site."
>
> One wonders how this will impact White House and other agencies' covert 
> monitoring of which federal workers are viewing which web-pages using 
> tax-funded computers.  (The "law enforcement, regulatory, or supervisory 
> purposes" exception might cover things like that, but if the Sec. 639 
> prohibition is to have ANY value, then those exceptions need to be more 
> precisely defined than they are.)
>
> --jim
> Jim Warren; jwarren () well com, technology & public policy columnist & advocate
> 345 Swett Rd, Woodside CA 94062; voice/650-851-7075; fax/off due to spam-glut
>
> [self-inflating puffery: Playboy Foundation Hugh Hefner First-Amendment Award;
> Soc.of Prof.Journalists-Nor.Calif. James Madison Freedom-of-Information Award;
> founded InfoWorld, Dr.Dobb's Journal, and Computers, Freedom & Privacy Confs.;
> Electronic Frontier Foundation's Pioneer Award (in its first year), blah blah]
>
>
>
> At 03:18 PM -0500 11/20/01, "Patrice McDermott" <patricem () ombwatch org> 
> posted to the State and Local Freedom of Information Issues listserv (FOI-L):
> [I cleaned up the text formatting a bit.  --jim]
> >                 H.R.2590
> >                 Sponsor: Rep Istook, Ernest J., Jr.(introduced
> >                 7/23/2001) Related Bills:  H.Res. 206, S. 1398.
> >                 Latest Major Action: 11/12/2001 Became Public Law No: 
> > 107-67.
> >                 Title: Making appropriations for the Treasury
> >                 Department, the United States Postal Service, the
> >                 Executive Office of the President, and certain
> >                 Independent Agencies, for the fiscal year ending
> >                 September 30, 2002, and for other purposes.
> >
> >  >  -----Original Message-----
> >
> >  > Gentlemen:  This is the conference language agreed to by the House
> > >  and Senate.  I do not have a copy of the Public Law as of yet. TITLE
> > >  VI--GENERAL PROVISIONS DEPARTMENTS, AGENCIES, AND CORPORATIONS
> >  >      Sec. 639. (a) Prohibition of Federal Agency Monitoring of Personal
> >  >   Information on Use of Internet.-- None of the funds made available
> > >    in this or any other Act may be used by any Federal agency--
> > >
> > >         (1) to collect, review, or create any aggregate list, derived
> > >         from any means, that includes the collection of any personally
> > >         identifiable information relating to an individual's access to or
> >  >        use of any Federal Government Internet site of the agency; or
> >  >
> > >         (2) to enter into any agreement with a third party (including
> > >         another government agency) to collect, review, or obtain any
> > >         aggregate list, derived from any means, that includes the
> >  >        collection of any personally identifiable information relating 
> > to an
> >  >        individual's access to or use of any nongovernmental Internet 
> > site.
> >  >
> > >       (b) Exceptions.--The limitations established in subsection (a) 
> > > shall not
> >  >      apply to--
> >  >        (1) any record of aggregate data that does not identify
> > >         particular persons;
> >  >        (2) any voluntary submission of personally identifiable 
> > information;
> >  >
> >  >        (3) any action taken for law enforcement, regulatory, or
> >  >        supervisory purposes, in accordance with applicable law; or
> > >         (4) any action described in subsection (a)(1) that is a system
> >  >        security action taken by the operator of an Internet site and is
> >  >        necessarily incident to the rendition of the Internet site 
> > services
> >  >        or to the protection of the rights or property of the provider of
> >  >        the Internet site.
> > >      (c)  Definitions.--For the purposes of this section:
> > >
> > >         (1) The term ``regulatory'' means agency actions to
> >  >        implement, interpret or enforce authorities provided in law.
> >  >        (2) The term ``supervisory'' means examinations of the agency's
> >  >        supervised institutions, including assessing safety and soundness,
> > >         overall financial condition, management practices and policies
> >  >        and compliance with applicable standards as provided in law.
> >
> > ------- End of forwarded message -------


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