February 1995
The Center for Democracy and Technology is an independent, non-profit public interest policy organization in Washington, DC. The Center's mission is to develop and implement public policies to protect and advance individual liberty and democratic values in new digital media. The Center achieves its goals through policy development, public education, and coalition building.
With the rapid growth of new media including the Internet, interactive television networks and multimedia information services, many proponents emphasize their potential to increase entertainment, commerce, and education. Pundits and policy makers also assure us that free speech and privacy will be preserved and our democratic institutions strengthened by new communication opportunities. But little actual attention is devoted to assuring that democracy and constitutional values are protected and enhanced by digital media.
The Center for Democracy and Technology has been founded to advance these values in the public policy debates over the evolving communications infrastructure. The Center will strive to achieve its goals by working with public interest groups, the communications and computer industry, and policy makers of all political persuasions to build coalitions in support of practical policies and solutions . The Center, founded by Jerry Berman, Janlori Goldman, and Daniel Weitzner, marshals legal, technical, and public policy expertise on behalf of civil liberties goals, including:
Maximizing free speech and the free flow of information in on-line and interactive media:
Interactive media, unlike mass media, feature abundant bandwidth, diverse programming, and increased control by users over programming they receive and information with which they interact. These characteristics of new media increasingly undermine past rationales and future effectiveness of government speech content restrictions which have dominated the mass media. Interactive media requires alternative, less intrusive, means-often relying on technology rather than content regulation-for achieving public ends.
Critical Free Speech Issues in 1995:
The Center will oppose government efforts to impose limits on free speech in interactive information services and work with the private sector and policy makers to investigate and develop alternative policy and technology options which meet legitimate government objectives without limiting constitutionally protected free speech or stultifying the potential of new media to maximize content diversity.
Giving citizens more control over sensitive personal information:
The Center believes that the use of personal information about citizens to conduct transactions in electronic media pose threats to individual privacy. At the same time, new technology may help citizens better control the use of information about themselves. The Center will work with privacy advocates, the business and communications industry, and public policy makers to develop self regulatory and public policy solutions to strengthen fair information practices and explore ways in which interactive technologies can increase citizen control over the use of personal information held by government and other third party institutions.
Critical Information Privacy Issues in 1995
Enhancing communications privacy in digital environments
With increased reliance on digital communications for sensitive personal, political, and financial information, the Center believes that the law must be constantly updated to protect communications privacy. But laws are not enough. The availability of privacy-protecting technology is critical to enable individuals and institutions to protect their privacy. The Center will work to assure that there is broad access to encryption technology, and will continue to insure that the privacy of personal communications are legally protected from unauthorized access.
Critical Digital Privacy Issues in 1995:
Guaranteeing public access to electronic government information:
New computer and communication technologies can enhance public access to government information. However, the Freedom of Information Act, the Paperwork Reduction Act, and other access statutes predate the PC revolution. The Center will work to reform these laws to expand the public's right to know in the digital age.
Critical Information Access Issues in 1995:
Identifying network architecture that serve democratic values :
The national and international information infrastructure is growing rapidly, but is still in very early stages of deployment. The Center believes that the design choices made now will have a critical impact on the free speech, access, and privacy. The Center will monitor technology trends to identify network developments which contribute to universal digital access and other democratic goals.
The Center for Democracy and Technology plans to work on privacy, security, free speech, access to public information, and open network issues by conducting the following projects.
A. Protecting Communications Privacy: The Digital Privacy and Security Working Group Project
The Center will coordinate the Digital Privacy and Security Working Group (DPSWG), a coalition of over 50 computer, communications, and civil liberties organizations and associations working on communications privacy and security issues.
The Center, on its own and through the DPSWG, will vigorously monitor the implementation of the newly enacted Digital Telephony Statute, "The Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act of 1994." The law contains procedures that permit privacy organizations and industry to intervene at the FCC with respect to standards setting, cost reimbursement, and privacy protection issues. The Center will work to insure that the spirit and intent of the bill are adhered to and use every opportunity to enforce public accountability by requiring the government to reimburse industry for the cost of meeting statutory wiretap capability and capacity requirements.
In addition, the Center will continue to oppose mandatory government escrowed encryption. Despite the recently announced reexamination of policy, the Clinton Administration has made it clear that it intends to pursue government escrowed encryption, rigid, secret national cryptography standards, and ongoing export controls on encryption which pose significant impediments to privacy and innovation in digital media. The Center and the DPSWG will form a task force to study and report on the privacy and security implications of public key private, non-governmental escrow systems.
In its effort to end export controls on cryptography, the Center will state its views in the context of the National Research Council's study. The Center will present its input through briefings, presentations, consultations, and testimony at regional public hearings. The Center will also work with DPSWG members to educate the new Congress on these critical security and privacy issues.
B. Safeguarding Personal Information in the Digital Age: The Privacy Forum Project
The Center will conduct an ongoing Privacy Forum to serve as a common meeting ground for public interest groups and business organizations who want to explore policy options for resolving transactional and database privacy issues posed by new technologies.
The Forum will bring together key privacy, consumer and business interests on an on-going basis to explore issues based on a mutual commitment to find solutions that strike a balance between privacy and fair information practices and other important public interests, including:
The Privacy Forum's agenda includes studying ways to balance the competing privacy, First Amendment and economic interests posed by recent initiatives to restrict access to and use of public records such as motor vehicle registrations, voting records, and real estate transactions.
The Privacy Forum will also identify problems and solutions regarding the privacy of transactional information created and used in the conduct of electronic commerce, politics, and entertainment over telephone, cable, and wireless networks.
The Privacy Forum will also work with the online service providers, including America Online, Compuserve, Delphi, Ziff-Davis Interactive, Interchange Online Network, civil liberties groups, and privacy experts to develop model self-regulatory consumer privacy policies for interactive services. The issues will be developed through research and explored in depth at an all day consultation in the fall of 1995.
The Privacy Forum will also explore new technology driven means for enforcing and abiding by fair information practices. The Forum will meet to discuss how interactive technology can give citizens new means for "filtering" or "opting out" and correcting, which at the same time providing businesses with more accurate and relevant information about who wants to receive specific products and services.In addition to the Privacy Forum, the Center will continue its work on Health Care Privacy Reform sponsored by the Hartford Foundation.
C. Protecting Free Speech: The Interactive Working Group Project
The Center will organize and coordinate the work of the Interactive Working Group in 1995. The IWG is a Center effort to bring together major on-line service providers (America On-line, Compuserve, AT&T Interactive, Delphi, Prodigy), new entrants into interactive services such as telephone and cable companies, and public interest groups to work together to develop policies and guidelines designed to maximize First Amendment values, privacy, commerce, and innovation rapidly developing interactive on-line media.
The introduction of legislation by Senators Exon and Conrad and others to limit indecent and violent programming in interactive and cable networks underscore the importance of establishing a working group to explore alternatives and less intrusive means for achieving public ends without violating free speech.
The Center, working with the IWG, will prepare a white paper, conduct meetings and conferences, and engage in public education on behalf of the IWG, to lay the groundwork for an alternative to content restrictions in new interactive media. The white paper will:
The Center and the IWG will outline a regulatory model for non-mass media interactive services which (a) permits interactive service providers to transmit, without liability, all lawful content, commercial or non-commercial, provided that they (b) clearly identify the nature of the programming (adult, tobacco sponsored, general viewing, etc.) and provide subscribers user-friendly means for making viewer choices for themselves and their children.
D. Expanding the Public Right to Know: The Electronic Public Information Project
This year Congress will again take up legislation to establish a right of access to the electronic version of public information by amending the Freedom of Information Act. Congress will also consider amendments to the Paperwork Reduction Act, which has important implications for governmental dissemination obligations, and the balance between reliance on public, versus private access options.
The Center, together with public interest groups, the information industry, and press organizations, will work to expand public access to electronic government information.
E. Open Networks: Network Architecture and Democracy Study Project.
As the public policy debate about the National Information Infrastructure continues, the Center, working with non-profits, and others who share free speech and diversity goals, will strive to expand and enlighten the debate over the relationship between various network architecture options and democratic values. The Center believes there is a critical need for independent research and analysis which reflects on the health, vitality, and growth of networks. Critical technology options are often overlooked by both policy makers and public interest organizations because the sources of technical information are generally limited to the very network owners and operators who are the subject of any given policy debate. If the NII is to be a true open platform, public policy must be guided by independent technology assessment undertaken with open network goals in mind.
The Center's Network Architecture and Democracy Study Project will track and analyze technology and market trends in the growth networks. The Center study will be undertaken in consultation with public interest organizations such as the Benton Foundation, the Consumer Federation of America, People for the American Way, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Progress and Freedom Foundation. The Project will strive to facilitate a dialogue between the public interest community, the communications and computer industry, and policy makers on open network goals.
When the 104th Congress consider telecommunications legislation, the Center will be at the core of the debate over the public interest in the development of the Information Infrastructure. Center staff, all of whom have had substantial involvement in the telecommunications debate over the last several years, will monitor the legislative developments to assure that the following values are served:
The Center will also work with other public interest organizations and industry groups to identify options for insuring continued access to non-commercial programming and information sources.
The Center is a 501©(3) (application pending) organization and receives funding from individuals, foundations, and a representative cross-section of the communications and computer industry.
Last Updated 03/08/95 | For More Information Write webmaster@cdt.org