[Random-bits] Declan on FTC Advisory Panel

[James Love]

Jamie, you might be interested in my piece on the FTC advisory panel. --Declan


http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,33586,00.html

                        3:00 a.m. 22.Jan.2000 PST
                        Being appointed to a federal advisory
                        committee is a lot like becoming a
                        mother-in-law: You get to tell everyone
                        why they're wrong, but nobody has to
                        listen.

                        Still, resume-obsessed Washingtonians
                        vie for such opportunities, and a few
                        dozen of them learned Friday they would
                        be on a Federal Trade Commission privacy
                        and security advisory panel. (The
                        self-congratulatory press releases quickly
                        followed.)

                        The interesting thing, though, was how
                        the FTC decided on the members. Over
                        180 people applied, and about 40 were
                        picked. You'd think that of that pool of
                        eager applicants, the FTC would have an
                        exquisite selection of potential choices.
                        Nope.

                        The commission decided to pass over
                        veteran privacy advocates and technical
                        experts -- like SystemExperts CTO Dan
                        Geer, a security guru and Usenix officer
                        since 1985 -- to choose someone who
                        hadn't even applied for the gig. They
                        picked E. David Ellington, chairman and
                        CEO of NetNoir, an online services
                        company that targets African-Americans.

                        It probably didn't hurt that Ellington gave
                        US$2,500 to Democratic candidates --
                        including $1,000 to Al Gore -- during the
                        last two years, according to Federal
                        Election Commission records. An FTC staff
                        member wouldn't say why Ellington was
                        chosen except to say the commission
                        wanted to "make its best efforts" to make
                        sure the group was representative.

                        "The commission retained discretion in the
                        absence of a nomination to appoint
                        advisory committee members to ensure
                        balance," said Jessica Rich, who pointed
                        us to a Federal Register notice in
                        December that said precisely that.

                        Perhaps the FTC hoped serving on the
                        advisory panel, which first meets on 4
                        February, would prove educational?
                        NetNoir asks visitors for their home
                        addresses, birthdates, and telephone
                        numbers, but does not have a posted
                        privacy policy saying what it will do -- or
                        won't do -- with that info.

                        That runs afoul of the Better Business
                        Bureau's principles for ethical conduct for
                        Web businesses, not to mention the
                        FTC's own guidelines. The only other
                        person on the panel who didn't apply was
                        Robert Henderson of NCR Corporation.
                        The FTC said he replaced Peter Reid, also
                        of NCR, who did apply.




-- 
James Love, Consumer Project on Technology
P.O. Box 19367        | http://www.cptech.org
Washington, DC 20036  | mailto:love@cptech.org
Voice 1.202.387.8030  | fax 1.202.387.8030