A serious vulnerability has been discovered in Microsoft�s Windows XP operating system. The vulnerability allows remote control of a computer through the XP universal plug and play system.
Congress and the President are likely to approve new student privacy protections included in an education reform bill this week. The protections, which have already been approved by the House of Representatives, will grant parents greater control over how commercial interests can use survey instruments to profile schoolchildren. Senators Christopher Dodd (D-CT) and Richard Shelby (R-AL) are the primary supporters of the protections.
The Student Press Law Center (SPLC) has revamped its website devoted to student free expression and access to government information. The site includes information for students involved in publishing underground newspapers and information on using state freedom of information laws.
Bennett Haselton, anti-filter activist and webmaster of Peacefire.org, has won $2,000 in damages against a spammer under a Washington State law that prohibits certain unsolicited commercial e-mail.
A Federal Trade Commission (FTC) official said at a recent marketing industry meeting that online privacy policies will govern a company�s offline data practices. The FTC may bring an enforcement action against a company if there is a disparity between its online and offline privacy practices, unless the company indicates that its online privacy policy does not apply to offline practices.
The House of Representatives has passed H.R. 90, the Know Your Caller Act. The bill, introduced by Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-PA), requires commercial solicitors to send caller ID information to call recipients. The bill also prohibits commercial solicitors from interfering with or circumventing caller ID systems. Individuals who receive telemarketing calls that have missing or blocked caller ID data can sue in their local courthouse for minimum damages of $500.
U.S. high school students who complete surveys intended to help them with college admissions may be unwittingly sending their personal information to marketers. Surveys administered by the National Research Center for College and University Admissions (NRCCUA) sell the personal information provided to American Student List (ASL). ASL uses the information to inundate young people with credit-card applications, magazine subscription offers, and other marketing. To protect its business, NRCCUA has lobbied Congress in opposition to measures that would create notice and opt-in protections against commercial profiling in schools.
