• PC World
• »Security

Privacy issues are seizing the legislative spotlight as Congress reconvenes next week to tackle bills ranging from reins on government surveillance to a national war on spam.

Internet privacy issues are likely to regain some attention now that the war in Iraq is waning, according to Lee Tien of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The nonprofit civil liberties organization is itself keeping close tabs on several proposals.

Data-Mining Curbed?

For example, the Data Mining and Moratorium Act (S. 188) would put the brakes on the Bush administration's Total Information Awareness plan. The Defense Department is developing Total Information Awareness so federal law enforcement agencies can sift through people's Internet, medical, credit card, and travel records, regardless of whether they are charged with a crime.

Law enforcement agencies say they need the massive database to help identify suspicious patterns of behavior that could indicate terrorist activities. But some members of Congress and civil liberties activists have accused the Justice Department of trying to vastly expand the scope of its data gathering without legal justification.

The moratorium would require the Departments of Homeland Security and Defense to inform Congress of their database-sweeping activities. Democratic senators Russ Feingold, of Wisconsin Jon Corzine of New Jersey, and Ron Wyden of Oregon proposed the bill.

"There is no evidence that data mining will, in fact, prevent terrorism," Feingold said in January. "And when one considers the potential for errors in data, for example, credit agencies that have data about John R. Smith on John D. Smith's credit report, the prospect of ensnaring many innocents is real."

The bill would continue to allow use of existing intelligence techniques such as computer searches of public information and of suspected criminals.

Patriot Act, Cont.

Dissent also continues among members of Congress and the public about a possible extension of the Patriot Act.

The Patriot Act of 2001, approved quickly after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, broadened government surveillance powers. The act expires in 2005. But the Administration is already seeking to expand government surveillance powers and make them permanent in the Domestic Security Enhancement Act, nicknamed "Patriot II."

Though Patriot II is still in draft stage, leaks about its existence infuriated civil rights and privacy groups. They fear government intrusion will erase personal privacy.

People should withhold judgment until a final version is introduced, says Viet Dinh, a U.S. assistant attorney general, who helped craft the Patriot Act.

"Patriot II is nothing but a leak," he says. "What we do is not a sea change in law but a shift in focus in our activities."

Targeting Spam

Concern about commercial intrusion on private PCs is the focus of the CAN-SPAM bill (S. 877), recently reintroduced for the third time in two years. Consumer groups and the Senate support the bill. If it becomes law, it would force e-marketers who violate the law to pay with fines and prison time.

Wyden and Senator Conrad Burns, a Montana Republican, introduced the legislation and say they are confident it will pass. Currently, there is no uniform way of dealing with spammers; each state sets its own rules.

"A crazy quilt of state rules is not going to get the job done," says Carol Guthrie, a Wyden spokesperson.

Some critics say the bill does not go far enough because it allows legitimate businesses to send unsolicited e-mail ads.

"Unintentionally, it could generate more spam rather than less," says John Mozena, executive director of the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail. The organization wants to eradicate all spam.

"We see the bill as a framework for regulating the spam industry and not getting rid of spam," Mozena says.

War on Mobile Spam

Spam isn't limited to desktop and laptop computers. Congress is also eyeing ways to curtail unsolicited e-mail sent to cell phones and personal digital devices.

Democratic Rep. Rush Holt of New Jersey addresses one of these problems with a bill (H.R. 122) to ban spam from wireless phones.

Rep. Heather Wilson of New Mexico, Republican, is also working on a bill that would create an e-mail opt-out list. The approach would be similar to one developed by the Federal Communications Commission that fights unwanted telemarketers.