DIGITAL DIVIDE
Desire To Close Digital Divide (NYT)
Does Everyone Need To Be Online? (SJM)
PRIVACY
FTC Chief Says E-Commerce Industry Should Reconsider Privacy-Rules
Stance (WSJ)
New Complaints on Tracking of Web Surfers (NYT)
WIRELESS
Cell-Phone Firms Testing "Caller Pays" (SJM)
SECURITY
Hackers, Security Pros Call Web Attacks Vandalism Consultants Ponder
Motive (USA)
INTERNATIONAL
NTT's Web Pricing Is Called Possibly Predatory As U.S.-Japanese
Telecom Trade Fight Deepens (WSJ)
Barriers Can Slow Net Industry In Asia (USA)
DIGITAL DIVIDE
DESIRE TO CLOSE DIGITAL DIVIDE
Issue: Digital Divide
A poll released Thursday indicates American workers are in favor of some
government intervention in minimizing the effects of the digital divide.
According to the poll conducted by Rutgers University and the University of
Connecticut, American workers want the federal government to support
computer literacy programs in high school. 80 percent of those polled said
they support computer literacy programs in high school. Entitled "Nothing
But Net: American Workers and the Information Economy," the study divided
computer users into several groups depending on how often they used a
computer. Daily users were termed "technophiles;" people with no access were
termed "exiles." Other findings: eight in ten respondents believed
information technology was good for the economy; sixty-eight percent of the
workers use a computer everyday; twenty-three percent learned to use a
computer at work, and more employees would like to be able to telecommute.
Researchers interviewed 1,005 working adults by telephone from Jan. 5 to
Jan. 19. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage
points.
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Associated Press]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/02/biztech/articles/11divide-poll.ht
ml)
SEE ALSO:
'DIGITAL DIVIDE' PLAGUES WORKERS
[SOURCE: Dallas Morning News, AUTHOR: Diana Kunde]
(http://dallasnews.com/business/30033_DIGITAL.html)
DOES EVERYONE NEED TO BE ONLINE?
Issue: Digital Divide
[Op-Ed] More than anything else, the digital divide reflects the education
and income divide. Poor and poorly educated people are less likely to own
and use computers than the info-rich rich. Yet, President Clinton wants to
make everyone a Net-head. In his proposed budget, the President would
allocate about $50 million for hardware, software and access fees to wire
the poor. All this rests on the notion that expanding Internet access
requires government action. It assumes that the bridge to the 21st century
spans a "digital divide" between rich and poor, white and non-white, and
some people can't make it across on their own.
[SOURCE: SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS (2/10), AUTHOR: Joanne Jacobs]
(http://http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/viewpoints/docs/jj021000.ht
m)
PRIVACY
NEW COMPLAINTS ON TRACKING OF WEB SURFERS
Issue: Internet/ Privacy
Thursday saw much activity related to the issue of how much companies can
track Web surfers. The Electronic Privacy Information Center, a privacy
group, asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate online advertising
giant DoubleClick under traditional deceptive and unfair trade practice
laws. The group said the company is illegally tracking
Internet users and combining their surfing habits with detailed personal
profiles contained in the national marketing database of a company it
recently merged with, Abacus. And Senator Robert Torricelli, a New Jersey
Democrat, introduced a bill that would regulate such tracking technology,
known as "cookies." Additionally, the chairman of the Federal Trade
Commission, Robert Pitofsky, hinted for the second time in as many days that
his agency might rethink its stance on legislation regulating how Web sites
would collect and maintain information collected about users.
[Source: NY Times (Cyber Times) Author: Jeri Clausing]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/02/cyber/articles/11cookies.htm)
See Also:
FTC CHIEF SAYS E-COMMERCE INDUSTRY SHOULD RECONSIDER PRIVACY-RULES STANCE
Issue: Privacy
Federal Trade Commission Chairman Robert Pitofsky warned that the e-commerce
industry's push for "self-regulation" of consumer privacy issues in leu of
federally mandated privacy standards may backfire. "Without comprehensive
federal legislation, it is possible that something of a vacuum will be
created and states may enter, not always with consistent proposals", said
Chairman Pitofsky in a recent speech. The e-commerce industry has come
under fire for its "self-regulation" stance amid reports of increasingly
sophisticated data-collection methods being employed on the Internet.
Activities by Congress members is evidence that the Internet privacy issue
has risen to the top of Washington's political agenda. Senate Minority
Leader Tom Daschle assembled a Senate Democratic Privacy Task Force, to be
headed by Senator Pat Leahy. GOP Senator Richard Shelby announced the
formation of a bipartisan Congressional Privacy Caucus.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B3), AUTHOR: Glenn Simpson]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB950228755854557684.htm)
SECURITY
HACKERS, SECURITY PROS CALL WEB ATTACKS VANDALISM CONSULTANTS PONDER MOTIVE
Issue: Internet
While the motive for the latest attacks against popular commercial Web sites
remains unclear, security professionals and those who identify themselves as
hackers who were interviewed during the past few days argue that the
perpetrators are not hackers but criminals, acting out of greed, political
motives -- or just plain psychological problems. Hackers, according to
experts, tend to be white, middle-class boys who are socially awkward, quite
bright, mechanically proficient and curious --
but not malicious. "A hacker is nothing more than an engineer of software
looking for its limits, understanding the good, the bad and the ugly," says
Winn Schwartau, security consultant and author of Information Warfare and
other books about computer security. "What we're seeing today is nothing
more than common vandals." These may seem fine distinctions, but labeling
all hackers criminals could lead to excesses by law enforcement, experts
say. "It's like saying every locksmith is a criminal because he has the
ability, skill or talent," says another hacker who goes by the online name
Space Rogue.
[Source: USAToday (13A) Author: M.J. Zuckerman]
(http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20000211/1929994s.htm)
HACKER ATTACKS ON THE INTERNET
Issue: Security
[Editorial] The recent hacker attacks, which have disrupted some of the
Web's most popular sites, have disrupted the stability of the newly emerging
cyberworld. Because the Internet is not owned or regulated by any government
or company, we have free expression, and commercial transactions and
political activity flourish. These very qualities of openness and freedom,
however, are what make the Internet vulnerable to attack. "The worst
response to these attacks," say the authors, "would be for government to
introduce requirements for the Internet that may destroy the freedom of
operation that makes it work so well." They suggest that it is premature to
consider regulations requiring users to identify themselves as they surf the
net. Instead, it is suggested that businesses operating on the Internet take
the lead over government in developing defenses against malicious hackers.
[SOURCE: New York Times (A30), AUTHOR: New York Times]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/02/biztech/articles/11web.html)
WIRELESS
CELL-PHONE FIRMS TESTING "CALLER PAYS"
Issue: Telephony
When you call someone's home or work number, the person receiving the call
doesn't have to pay anything. But place a call to a cellular phone, and the
person receiving the call is charged by the minute. Mobile-phone users with
Bell Atlantic Corp. may soon have the option of having the person making the
call foot the entire cost of those calls. Callers placing a call to a
cellular customer who are part of Bell Atlantic's "Call Me" plan are greeted
with an announcement that tells them they can hang up to avoid any charges.
If they remain on the line, they are told that their telephone bills will be
charged 25 cents a minute if Bell Atlantic is their local phone carrier, or
35 cents a minute if the charges should be billed to a credit card. This
past summer, the Federal Communications Commission voted to allow wireless
companies to introduce it as an option to consumers in the United States.
The federal regulatory agency is expected to release final rules on the
issue in a matter of weeks.
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR:]
(http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/breaking/merc/docs/collec021100.ht
m)
INTERNATIONAL
NTT'S WEB PRICING IS CALLED POSSIBLY PREDATORY AT U.S.-JAPANESE TELECOM
TRADE FIGHT DEEPENS
Issue: International/Competition
Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corporation sharply cut its Internet service
prices in response to criticism that its prices had been impeding the
development of the Internet in Japan. And while the U.S. should consider
this a victory since they have long been pressuring NTT to reduce its
prices, saying that it would help consumers and give foreign companies a
better chance of cracking the market, a U.S. official said that NTT's cuts
may represent predatory pricing. "You shouldn't price in a predatory manner
if you're a dominant carrier." Instead, the U.S. would like to have seen NTT
reduce the interconnection fees it charges to rival carriers when those
carriers use parts of NTT's network of phone lines. That would encourage
NTT's rivals to offer a fixed-rate Internet service of their own; something
none of them currently do because they are paying too much of their revenues
to NTT in the form of interconnection fees. The debate on interconnections
fees is threatening to become a major U.S.-Japan trade conflict. The U.S.
is seeking a 41% reduction on the standard type of interconnection fee while
NTT says it can only afford a 22.5% cut over several years.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (A10), AUTHOR: Peter Landers]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB950213952942344257.htm)
BARRIERS CAN SLOW NET INDUSTRY IN ASIA
Issue: Internet/International
Asia's Internet industry faces more, and often higher, barriers than the
industry in the USA, analysts say. These barriers include the fact that a
smaller percentage of people in Asia own personal computers and land-line
telephones. Additionally, credit card use, which is so important for
e-commerce, is much less common in Asian countries than it is in the US or
Europe. There are also problems with government reluctance to allow the
Internet to go about its business unchecked. For instance, China's recent
vow to crack down on Internet companies that publish "state secrets" has
raised a few eyebrows in the industry.
[Source: USAToday (2B) Author: Julie Schmit]
(http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20000211/1930036s.htm)
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