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America’s privacy laws have not been updated for the digital age. Please join us for a briefing about how Congress can strengthen online privacy protections for all Americans. The Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) was written nearly three decades ago. Members of the Digital 4th coalition and others will discuss the need to update this outdated law and protect the privacy of Americans’ emails, photos and other information stored online.

• Chris Calabrese Senior Policy Director, Center for Democracy and Technology
• Will Carty Director of Public Policy for U.S. & Canada, Twitter
• David Lieber Senior Privacy Policy Counsel, Google
• Katie McAuliffe Federal Affairs Manager, Americans for Tax Reform
• Gabe Rottman Legislative Counsel, American Civil Liberties Union

Program Description: Increasingly, there is a call for competition authorities to take account of firms’ collection and use consumer data—conduct that has been the primary province of consumer protection—when reviewing mergers or conduct. For example, although the Facebook-WhatsApp, Google-Nest, and Oracle-Datalogix mergers raised no traditional antitrust concerns, some argued for a new competition analysis that would take into account the abilities of the combined entities to collect and utilize consumer data. Indeed, a consortium of public interest groups recently asked the FTC to take a closer look at “increasing concentration” in the “big data digital marketplace.” Further, several commentators urged the FTC to examine privacy-related issues during its investigation into Google’s search practices. At the same time, it’s not at all clear that antitrust can or should accommodate these new non-competition concerns. Critics of conflating antitrust and privacy analysis contend that the use of big data enhances competition by improving service and facilitating entry. What’s more, antitrust analysis traditionally has focused on markets for goods and services that are sold to consumers, not on internally-used resources like data.

Would consumers be better served with the continued divorcement of privacy and competition concerns? Or should modern antitrust be more accommodating to privacy concerns in the era of big data? Join the LEC for a morning of lively discussion on this topic. FTC Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen will set the stage by discussing her forthcoming Antitrust Law Journal article, “Competition, Consumer Protection and The Right [Approach] To Privacy.” A panel discussion on big data and antitrust, which includes some of the leading thinkers on the subject, will follow.

For more information, click here.

Identity Theft:  #1 FTC Consumer Complaint 15 Consecutive Years

The Path Forward – Helping Today’s Victims and Working to Prevent Tomorrow’s

Join us on Wednesday, March 18 for the release of Identity Theft Resource Center’s research whitepaper – Identity Theft: #1 FTC Consumer Complaint 15 Consecutive Years. A panel of experts will discuss the paper’s key findings, and our keynote speaker, Terrell McSweeny, will provide an inside perspective on the FTC’s Consumer Sentinel Network Report.

Keynote

Terrell McSweeny
Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission
@TMcSweenyFTC

Panel

• Moderator: Eva Velasquez, President/CEO, Identity Theft Resource Center

• John Breyault, VP of Public Policy, Telecommunications & Fraud, National Consumers League

• Andrew Bucholz, VP of Market Planning, LexisNexis Risk Solutions

• Lisa Schifferle, Attorney, Division of Consumer & Business Education, Federal Trade Commission
• Shawn Tiller, Director of Refund Crimes, Internal Revenue Service

Identity theft has been the number 1 complaint as measured by the FTC Consumer Sentinel Network Report for fifteen consecutive years. The states that have been historically the most effected may need special consideration regarding remediation strategies and education/awareness programs. The ITRC, FTC Commissioner Terrell McSweeny, and an expert panel will discuss the issues surrounding these heavily affected populations and what all stakeholders can do to better understand and assist them.

Use the hashtag #IDTheftImpact to join the conversation. We will be sharing statistics and facts from the findings on Twitter.

It is important to realize that all of our constituents, customers, and citizens need tools that are specifically designed to assist their needs. By bringing policy makers, regulatory officials, industry specialists and advocacy groups into this discussion we hope to come away with new ideas and strategies, as well as collaborative opportunities.

In the era of big data analytics, prediction of a person’s behavior or attitude is becoming more and more accurate.  But because of the nature of these new methods of predictive analysis, it is not always clear what factors are contributing to these outcomes.  It is possible then that the new methods are replicating old discriminatory patterns.  What should data analytics firms, government and the public do to protect against the risks of big data discrimination?  Join a panel of experts and Georgetown CCT Faculty for a timely and informative discussion of this crucial issue.

Moderator: Mark MacCarthy, CCT

Panelists:

Meg Jones, CCT

Ashkan Soltani, Chief Technology Officer at the Federal Trade Commission

Solon Baracas, Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton University

When: Monday, March 23rd starting at 4:30 PM
Where: Walsh 495, Georgetown University

The Internet of Things (IoT) is shaping up to the be the next mega-trend, following the major shifts to mobile and cloud computing that have shaped the last decade in technology.  IoT will have far-reaching effects beyond technology to touch every industry from healthcare to retail to oil and gas exploration.  Our increasingly connected world of devices with intelligent interfaces seamlessly integrated into the Internet – or the IoT – presents immense opportunity for business growth and benefits to society.  By 2020, Internet of Things spending is estimated to total $1.9 trillion and with this growth comes new challenges as well.  This rapidly developing market of health wearables, connected homes, smart cities and vehicle-to-vehicle communication will redically change computing and human interaction; however, in order to realize the economic and societal benefits of IoT, consumer trust will be imperative.  The biggest barriers to adoption remain concerns around privacy and security.

Please join us for a morning panel discussion addressing these issues at the Microsoft Innovation & Policy Center on Thursday, March 26th.  The event will engage speakers and the audience in an exploration of where the right balance is between data minimization and innovation.  The conversation will touch on the opportunities and challenges that face the IoT and ways we can ensure a vibrant, reliable, and trusted Internet of Things ecosystem – both domestically and overseas.

Mobile devices are collecting and disseminating a wealth of data about our health—from smartphone-based glucose monitors to Wi-Fi–enabled pacemakers. These innovations allow patients, doctors, and the business world to identify, manage, and research ailments in an unprecedented way. At the same time, the accumulation of this information by corporations and health care providers raises questions about whom our data belongs to, and who is responsible for keeping it safe. Haphazard privacy regulations and inadequate security measures are already putting this highly sensitive data at risk of being leaked or hacked. As health care goes digital, how much access should we have to the information we’re generating, and what can we do to keep it from unfriendly eyes?

Follow the discussion online using #MobileHealth and follow @FutureTenseNow.

Agenda

12:00 PM: Whose Data is it Anyway?

Sara M. Watson
Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University
@smwat

Deborah Estrin
Professor, Computer Science, Cornell Tech & Co-Founder, Open mHealth
@deborahestrin

Joel Selanikio
CEO & Co-Founder, Magpi & Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Georgetown University
@jselanikio

Moderator: Sherwin Siy
Vice President of Legal Affairs, Public Knowledge
@SherwinPK

12:50 PM: Hacking Demo

Kevin Fu
Director, Archimedes Research Center for Medical Device Security, University of Michigan

1:10 PM: Will Health Tech Ever be Hack Proof?

Kevin Fu
Director, Archimedes Research Center for Medical Device Security, University of Michigan

Lucia Savage
Chief Privacy Officer, National Coordinator for Health IT
@SavageLucia

Alvaro Bedoya
Executive Director, Center on Privacy and Technology, Georgetown
@alvarombedoya

Moderator: Peter Singer
Strategist and Senior Fellow, New America
@peterwsinger

One year on from the publication of the APEC-EU referential, this third Webinar in the TRUSTe 2015 Privacy Insight Series will review the latest developments with APEC Cross Border Privacy Rules (CBPR), Binding Corporate Rules (BCR) and the EU Safe Harbor negotiations. Register now to hear from a panel of experts who have either been closely involved in working towards greater interoperability of these different frameworks or have first-hand experience of taking their company through the process.

For more information, click here.

Denver IAPP Knowledgenet

Speaker:
Teresa Troester-Falk, CIPP/US, Chief Global Privacy Strategist, Nymity

For more information, click here.

Rice President David Leebron and Rice Professor Dan Wallach will join Congressman Ted Poe and other members of Congress and others for a bipartisan policy forum exploring the application of the Fourth Amendment on technological advances.

For so long, it was possible to watch the new General Data Protection Regulation debate from the sidelines but as politicians get closer to final consensus finally the time has come to start to take action. Given the complexity of introducing new global compliance initiatives, now is the time to assess the potential impact of the proposed Regulation on your business and ensure you have the budget, tools and plan in place to respond. In this fourth webinar in the TRUSTe Privacy Insight Series, privacy experts will share their insights on the final requirements in the proposed EU General Data Protection regulation and what businesses need to do to prepare for changes ahead.

For more information, click here.