IT Matters

In the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing, we’ve seen a lot of discussion about the crucial role that the abundance of surveillance cameras and smartphones played in finding the suspects. The general consensus seems to be that these technologies were useful. For example, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said, “The Boston bombing is a terrible reminder of why we’ve made these investments—including camera technology that could help us deter an attack, or investigate and apprehend those involved.” And Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel similarly endorsed surveillance cameras when he said, “I will say, as I always have, because we have continued to put cameras throughout the city for security … purposes, they serve an important function for the city in providing the type of safety on a day-to-day basis—not just for big events like a marathon, but day-to-day purposes.”

Not surprisingly privacy advocates worry that such a high-profile display of the benefits of these camera systems will lead to more public acceptance and adoption, and so they are trying to minimize the value of these systems by arguing that this is a rare event. Jeff Chester, the executive director of … Read the rest

I had the opportunity to speak at the Bahrain International e-Government Forum this year—an annual conference which promotes the development of e-government in Bahrain. As part of the event, numerous Bahrain government agencies participated in an expo where they showcased their latest e-government services. One of the most impressive aspects of e-government in Bahrain is its successful deployment of electronic IDs.

I’ve written quite a bit about electronic ID systems in other countries, the benefits that they provide, and how the United States can more aggressively pursue this goal. The ability to securely identify users is a prerequisite to many e-government and e-commerce services, and the lack of a common identity platform raises costs for both the public and private sectors who must establish their own one-off systems for identification and authentication. Given how much the United States has been lagging on this technology, it was a real pleasure to have the opportunity to visit a country that has implemented an advanced electronic ID system.

The smart card IDs in Bahrain replaced a paper-based ID card system developed in the 1980s. Cards are valid for five years, and they are … Read the rest

I recently wrote about the potential impact on differential pricing caused by the Supreme Court decision in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley and Sons which found that the first sale doctrine applies to copyrighted works lawfully made abroad. I noted in that article that since most digital goods are licensed, not sold, differential pricing is still possible for digital goods, but that licensing has had side effects, such as limiting the ability of consumers to resell their digital goods in the used goods market.

Generally, consumers are allowed to legally buy and sell used goods. For example, if you buy a music CD, you can listen to it as many times as you want and then, if you don’t plan to listen to it again and you haven’t made any copies, legally sell the CD. But the same isn’t true of digital goods that the consumer does not own but instead has only received a licensed to use.

For example, Amazon’s MP3 store license agreement includes the following restrictions:

“You must comply with all applicable copyright and other laws in your use of the Music Content. Except as set forth in

… Read the rest

The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 this week in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley and Sons in favor of Supap Kirtsaeng, a college student from Thailand who was challenging a copyright infringement charge for textbooks he bought overseas and resold in the United States. The publishers argued that the first-sale doctrine, which allows legally-acquired copyrighted works to be resold without the permission of the copyright owner, does not apply to goods made abroad. The heart of the case depended on the court’s interpretation of the meaning of the term “lawfully made.” Does it mean “made in the United States” (i.e. where Congress has jurisdiction) or “made according to copyright laws” (i.e. not a counterfeit copy)?  Ultimately, the majority opinion rejected the geographical interpretation put forth by the publishers and found that the first sale doctrine applies to copies of copyrighted works lawfully made abroad.

The majority opinion acknowledged potential difficulties that could arise if it ruled in favor of the publishers, such as requiring libraries to get permission to lend books that were printed overseas or requiring owners of foreign-made cars to get permission from the copyright holders of the software in … Read the rest

I’ve written before about how well-intentioned privacy laws and regulations can come at the expense of innovation and harm consumers (see here, here, and here), but there is not a lot of data available to show the exact impact. However, a new feature on Netflix provides a good case study of the impact on innovation of at least one of these privacy rules.

First, some background. Today, Netflix announced a new feature—“Netflix Social”—which lets users share the TV shows and movies they watch on Netflix with their friends on Facebook. As Cameron Johnson, the director of product innovation, at Netflix explains on the official Netflix blog:

By default, sharing will only happen on Netflix. You’ll see what titles your friends have watched in a new “Watched by your friends” row and what they have rated four or five stars in a new “Friends’ Favorites” row. Your friends will also be able to see what you watch and rate highly… You are in control of what gets shared. You can choose not to share a specific title by clicking the “Don’t Share This” button in the player.

… Read the rest

The past two weeks have seen two important announcements come out of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). First, Commissioner Edith Ramirez was designated to replace outgoing Commissioner Jon Leibowitz as Chairman. Second, identity theft has been reported as the top consumer complaint to the FTC for the 13^th year in a row.

Why are these two announcements related? It’s simple. As Chairwoman Ramirez considers how she will lead the FTC throughout her term, it’s worth looking at where the FTC can help Americans the most, particularly in an era of limited budgets. And the most recent data from the FTC overwhelmingly shows that the top priority for the Commission should be on identity theft.

The latest data on identity theft comes from the FTC’s recently released Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book for 2012. The Consumer Sentinel Network (CSN) is a database of consumer complaints received by a variety of sources including the FTC, state law enforcement agencies, state attorneys general, the FBI, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the Better Business Bureau. While there are limits to how the data should be used … Read the rest

Sharon Biggar is the CEO of Path Intelligence, a company which is bringing online analytics to the offline world by providing retailers with real-time intelligence about how people move within buildings. I asked Sharon to share with me her thoughts on how this type of data will improve offline experiences for consumers.

Castro: You have an incredibly novel product with FootPath.  Can you briefly explain what it does?

Biggar: FootPath enables retailers and malls to optimize their space to improve shopper profitability.  Until now it has been challenging for shopping centers and retailers to understand and quantify how shoppers moved through their physical spaces, but with our FootPath solution retailers and malls can understand how many shoppers there are, how long they stay and where they go within the mall or store. For example, if shoppers visit the menswear section do they also visit kids wear?  Or if they visit Gap do they also visit Sears?  What happens if the mall or store owner moves these products or stores, how do shoppers react?  Our solution helps retailers and malls to answer those questions.

Castro: What do retailers do with … Read the rest

Originally posted on the Electronic Health Reporter.

Although we are only a month into it, 2013 is already shaping up to be an important year for health information technology (IT).

Two recent developments have increased pressure on the health care community to deliver results from government investments in health IT systems.  First, concerns about the federal budget are causing policymakers to take a close look at programs with a large budget. As of July 2012, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) reports that the government has spent almost $6.6 billion in incentive payments for electronic health record (EHR) systems, and the amount of money spent on health IT will only continue to grow.

Second, policymakers are taking an extra critical look at any program that appears to be underperforming. Whether fair or not, health IT will likely fit this profile as well because of recent concerns that have been raised about the effectiveness of some of these investments. In particular, earlier this month, the RAND Corporation released a report backtracking on its earlier assertion that health IT could save the United States more than $81 billion … Read the rest

In my first post on the Location Privacy Protect Act of 2012 I addressed the claims that the legislation is necessary because some companies may share a user’s location data without that user’s knowledge and some companies may share location data about children without their parent’s knowledge. In this post, I will address Sen. Franken’s argument that this legislation is needed to prevent domestic violence abusers from using “stalking apps” to track their victims.

The attempt to link honest uses of location data with domestic violence is a bit disheartening. Let’s face it—nobody is against preventing domestic violence so this unnecessarily makes a rather technical debate about a deeply emotional issue. But because this claim has gotten a lot of attention, I want to dig into it a bit and address it on its merits.

First, for all the talk about this problem, the evidence for the use of stalking apps by stalkers and harassers is somewhat thin. There are some notable cases of victims being stalked but it is not clear how prevalent this is in practice. However, given the increased use in smart phones, I would suspect that … Read the rest