Clips January 21, 2004

[Lillie Coney <lillie.coney@xxxxxxx>]

Clips January 21,
2004

ARTICLES

Campaigns Use Voter Data to Find Supporters
Privacy group files complaint over data shared by Northwest 
Airlines
VoIP gets level pegging in Panama
Microsoft lightens up on teen's mikerowesoft site
Census Bureau to test PDAs, Web for enumeration
Idaho governor calls for tech office

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Reuters
Campaigns Use Voter Data to Find Supporters
Tue Jan 20,11:09 AM ET
By Andy Sullivan 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Faced with the possibility of another close
election, U.S. political campaigns and advocacy groups are drawing up
detailed profiles of the voters who will determine their success at the
polls next fall.


Political groups are finding out what kind of car their prospective
supporters drive, how much they earn, what sort of neighborhood they live
in and what magazines they read. 


They may not know how individuals voted in the last election, but they do
know who showed up at the polls and whether they are registered with a
particular party -- strong indicators of how they are likely to vote in
the November election, experts say. 


"It's pretty scary, the stuff you can get on people," said
Robert Richman, founder of the liberal campaign consulting firm
Grassroots Solutions. 


Political groups say such "voter targeting" allows them to
organize voter-registration drives, communicate with supporters and sway
undecided voters to their cause. 


But such tactics lead to ideological polarization and declining voter
turnout as campaigns tailor their message to a dedicated core of likely
supporters, some critics say. 


"Elections are supposed to be about the give and take of political
ideas, but increasingly elections are about going out and trying to get
market share," said Kim Alexander, executive director of the
California Voter Project, a nonpartisan public interest group. 


The raw data for much of this activity flows through a rickety row house
tucked behind the U.S. Capitol, where Aristotle International Inc.
compiles and constantly updates a list of some 160 million voters.


On a recent afternoon, company President Dean Aristotle Phillips searched
the voter database for Democratic women between 35 and 45 years old in
Fairfield County, Connecticut, who have indicated they don't want to
receive telemarketing calls. 


The computer returned 3,004 matches, with a long list of personal
details: name, address, phone number, income level, whether they have
children, household size, whether they have an "ethnic"
surname. Contributions to political candidates, arts organizations,
environmental groups and other interest groups were also noted. 


VOTING HISTORY MOST VALUABLE 


Most valuable is the voter history, which reveals how many elections the
person has participated in since 1984. Reliable voters are especially
prized, Phillips said. 


"A voter who voted in every single election in the past 10 years is
more likely to show up on polling day," he said. 


Nearly half of the 535 members of the U.S. Congress buy voter data from
Aristotle, along with state legislature candidates, party organizations
and interest groups like the NAACP at a rate of $25 per 1,000 names.


Campaigns can then augment that data with car registration records, home
sale records and magazine subscriptions to determine who is worth
contacting. 


A registered Democrat who votes regularly and has donated money to
abortion rights causes will probably be receptive to other liberal
causes, while the National Rifle Association might be interested in a
list of people who have taken out hunting licenses to expand its
membership base, experts said. 


Many political groups are reluctant to reveal techniques for fear they
could be adopted by the other side. 

   



"The less that's revealed to the Democrats, the better," said
Christine Iverson, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee
(news - web sites). 

Detailed voter databases allow campaigns to save money on postage by
sending mailings only to those households that might be receptive.
Volunteers going house-to-house can know whether to knock on a door or
pass it by. 

"Campaigns have limited resources," Grassroots Solutions'
Richman said. "It doesn't make sense to try to talk to
everybody." 

But if candidates are only speaking to their most loyal supporters, those
who may not fall neatly on either side of the ideological divide may be
overlooked, Alexander said, noting that voter turnout has declined
steadily. 

"There are the American people and there are the American voters,
and they are not one and the same," she said.
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USA Today
Privacy group files complaint over data shared by Northwest
Airlines

MINNEAPOLIS (AP)  An electronic privacy group called for an
investigation into Northwest Airlines on Tuesday after reports that the
nation's fourth-largest carrier shared passenger data with the government
after the Sept. 11 attacks. 

The Electronic Privacy Information Center complaint, filed with the
Transportation Department, calls for possible sanctions against Northwest
for what it called unfair and deceptive trade practices. The center also
asked the Transportation Department to order Northwest to notify all
affected passengers that travel information was disclosed to NASA.

Eagan-based Northwest gave passenger records covering October to December
2001 to NASA for a study on passenger screening. NASA kept the records
for about two years, returning them to Northwest after JetBlue Airways
found itself apologizing to its passengers for sharing data with a
defense contractor. 

JetBlue's chief executive sent an apologetic e-mail to customers in
September after revelations that the airline gave 5 million passenger
itineraries to a Defense Department contractor studying ways to identify
"high risk" airline customers. 

The release of Northwest's records was made public over the weekend by
the privacy group, which used the Freedom of Information Act to request
NASA documents that showed that Northwest had shared the data. 

The group said Northwest violated its own privacy policy by sharing the
records, and pointed out that Northwest chief executive Richard Anderson
and spokesman Kurt Ebenhoch both denied last year that the airline shared
the data. On Sunday, Northwest said Anderson and Ebenhoch had been
unaware that the records were given to the government at the time they
were asked about it. 

Northwest had no comment on the complaint on Tuesday. 

Northwest hasn't said how many passenger records were involved, but
Transportation Department figures show the airline carried more than 10.9
million people during that time. 

The privacy group's general counsel, David Sobel, said his group plans to
sue on Thursday to force NASA to release more information, including
whether other airlines shared such data. 

The Transportation Department said it would look into the 
complaint.
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CNET News.com
VoIP gets level pegging in Panama
Last modified: January 20, 2004, 3:44 PM PST
By Ben Charny 
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

Panama is set to introduce a tax that treats traditional and Internet
phone calls the same way, a "technology agnostic" regulation
that has had a mixed welcome from broadband phone providers. 

Last week, lawmakers in the Central American country approved a
regulation that will impose a 12 percent tax on all international calls,
including those that use voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology
to make phone calls over a broadband connection. 

The tax, which goes into effect in March, is another sign that VoIP is
gaining mass-market acceptance as a way to make international and
long-distance calls. VoIP calls are typically cheaper for customers than
those connected via privately owned telephone networks. 

Currently, about 11 percent of all voice traffic worldwide is classified
as VoIP, but less than 1 percent of those calls is initiated on a VoIP
phone linked to a computer, as opposed to a regular home phone.

But as more calls find their way off traditional phone networks and onto
the Internet, regulators say governments risk losing billions of dollars
in telephone tax revenue, which typically goes toward supporting
universal services such as 911. Panama, for instance, is estimated to
have lost $12 million in taxes through people using the Internet to make
international calls. 

VoIP providers, currently embroiled in a struggle over industry oversight
in the United States, have bristled in the past at any suggestion of
regulation. However, some companies said on Tuesday that they are
beginning to warm up to a technology-agnostic approach.

Bryan Weiner, the president of Net2Phone, Panama's largest VoIP provider,
said he supports Panama's "one law covers every technology"
approach. One argument in its favor is that the 12 percent tax would
usually work out cheaper than the levy of $1 per international call it
replaces.

"Some might say it's bad news, because it's a tax," Weiner
said. "As long as it's a level playing field, we're
happy."

But Huw Rees, a spokesman for broadband phone service provider 8x8, said
the new approach sounds as "confusing and convoluted" as
earlier attempts to regulate the VoIP industry. For instance, Internet
phone providers routinely don't charge customers for calls to other
subscribers. If they followed Panama's lead, governments taxing those
calls would collect "12 percent of zero, which is zero, I
guess," Rees said. 

"We're not trying to break the law. But some of them are pretty
foolish." 

Turkey and Pakistan are also expected to adopt telephone rules that, like
Panama's, treat VoIP providers no differently than traditional phone
providers. 
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USA Today
Microsoft lightens up on teen's mikerowesoft site
Posted 1/20/2004 7:35 PM     Updated 1/20/2004 10:21
PM

TORONTO (Reuters)  Microsoft indicated Tuesday it might have
overreacted to the Web site of Canadian teenager Mike Rowe who had added
the word "soft" to his name and registered the address
mikerowesoft.com.

"We take our trademark seriously, but in this case maybe a little
too seriously," Microsoft spokesman Jim Desler said.

"We appreciate that Mike Rowe is a young entrepreneur who came up
with a creative domain name, so we're currently in the process of
resolving this matter in a way that will be fair to him and satisfy our
obligations under trademark law," Desler said.

In November, Microsoft's Canadian lawyers demanded that Rowe, 17, change
the name of his Internet site, claiming copyright infringement. They said
they would pay Rowe, who lives in Victoria, British Columbia, $10 for his
trouble. (Related story: Microsoft takes on teen over domain
name)

But the high school student decided to fight back and his story got media
attention to the extent that he was forced to shut down his Web site
Monday morning after getting about 250,000 hits. He managed to get the
site back up after moving to a service provider with greater
capacity.

"I never expected this type of feedback. I have put up a defense
fund so that I can hire a lawyer to guide me through the process of
talking to Microsoft.... I could never think this could happen, even in
my wildest dreams," Rowe wrote on his site.

Rowe is demanding $10,000 from Microsoft to change the site's name.
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USA Today
Census Bureau to test PDAs, Web for enumeration
By Dibya Sarkar, Federal Computer Week
Posted 1/20/2004 2:42 PM

In preparation of the 2010 census, U.S. Census Bureau officials are
running at least two tests to evaluate new methods and procedures
including data collection technologies, such as the Internet and personal
digital assistants.

In an enumeration test beginning Feb. 2, bureau officials will provide
U.S. citizens living abroad with the choice of mailing back a paper
questionnaire or responding via the Internet. The second test, beginning
in early March, will involve mailing paper questionnaires to seven
neighborhoods in northwest Queens, N.Y., and to three southwest Georgia
counties: Colquitt, Thomas and Tift.

Bureau officials will not release official population statistics because
the main thrust is to evaluate various methods and technologies, said
Kimberly Crews, the bureau's senior public affairs specialist. However,
in the overseas test, officials are exploring not only the technology but
also the feasibility of counting private U.S. citizens who are not with
the military or federal government. 

"We get a count from the military and government as to who's where
and which country and what their home state is," she said. "So
the other people who live overseas don't get counted, and there's been
some movement from some groups that we should count people who live
overseas," she said. 

The first tests will be conducted in France, Kuwait and Mexico. The
questionnaire will include questions such as name, relationship to others
in the household, age, sex, race or Hispanic origin, citizenship, last
U.S. address and passport number.

"And they will have the option of responding by paper questionnaire
or via the Internet," she said. "I assume most of them will
probably respond via the Internet but we'll see."

There's no Internet response option on the second test, but census takers
equipped with PDAs would be deployed to follow up on households that
didn't send back questionnaires, Crews said. It will be the first time
such handheld devices are used for that kind of work, although laptop
computers were used in a limited fashion during the last decennial
census, Crews said. In testing the usability and security of PDAs, census
takers would be able to get their assignments electronically, she
said.

Over the next four years, Crews said several more similar tests using the
Internet and PDAs at specific sites would be conducted. "And then in
2008 we have a dress rehearsal," she said. "So in 2008,
basically whatever technologies have been accepted, what will be used in
2008, are the ones that will be used in 2010."
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USA Today
Editor of satirical Web site won't face criminal libel charge
Posted 1/20/2004 8:02 PM

GREELEY, Colo. (AP)  The editor of a satirical Web site called the
Howling Pig won't be charged with criminal libel for poking fun at a
University of Northern Colorado professor, prosecutors said. 

Howling Pig editor Thomas Mink's comments about business professor Junius
"Jay" Peake didn't break any laws, Weld County District
Attorney Al Dominguez said Monday. 

Officers confiscated Mink's computer from his home after Peake went to
police and prosecutors about the Web site. 

The site carried a photograph of Peake, altered to look like KISS
guitarist Gene Simmons, and said "Mr. Junius Puke" was a former
KISS roadie who made a fortune by riding "the tech bubble of the
nineties like a $20 whore." 

Mink sued in U.S. District Court in Denver, saying the seizure of his
computer violated his privacy, his free speech rights and his
constitutional protection from unreasonable searches and seizures.

The suit alleged a detective told Mink to stop publishing the online
newsletter and warned he could face criminal libel charges. 

U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Babcock ordered police to return Mink's
computer and barred prosecutors from charging Mink with criminal libel
while he considered the constitutionality of the statute designating it a
crime. 

Dominguez said he had read an inch-think packet of printouts from the
Howling Pig, "and I can't see anything criminally libelous in
it." 

Dominguez said the case might fit closer into the category of civil
libel. Peake said he had no plans to file a civil suit. 

"First of all, it would cost me $25,000 to $50,000 for attorney
fees, and then I'd be suing someone who doesn't have any money," he
said. 

Peake, an outspoken campus conservative, said he didn't ask for a
criminal investigation. 

"I just went to the D.A. to try to find out who was writing those
things about me," Peake said. "I'm surprised this thing got so
blown out of proportion." 

Mink said he would press his fight against Colorado's criminal libel law,
saying it violates free speech. 

"Even if they don't pursue charges against me, they still searched
my house and took my computer," Mink said. "I think the courts
should look into that." 

The Howling Pig has received more than 10,000 hits since Mink's case made
the news. The site remains online.
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USA Today
Worst spammers unfazed as law trips other e-mailers 
By Jon Swartz, USA TODAY

The new federal anti-spam law is having an impact on many, it seems 
but not the biggest spammers.

The law's intent was to ban billions of junk e-mail messages sent daily.
But there have been unintended consequences.

Companies that don't technically spam but send commercial e-mail are
scrambling to change tactics so they don't break the law, which went into
effect Jan. 1. Previous state anti-spam laws allowed companies to send
junk e-mail to current customers. The federal law includes new rules for
commercial e-mail. 

For the first time, many businesses are offering opt-out options, which
let recipients unsubscribe from e-mail lists, and are including physical
addresses in their e-mail to avoid running afoul of the law. It carries
fines of $250 per e-mail. 

"Smaller companies are especially grappling with the law," says
Deborah Thoren-Peden, a privacy lawyer who advises firms. "Anyone
with a customer database has to re-evaluate their e-mail policy."

Meanwhile, most of the largest bulk e-mailers, who use sophisticated
software to cover their tracks, continue to send illegal mass mailings
for porn, get-rich-quick schemes and miracle drugs, anti-spam groups say.
About 58% of e-mail monitored in January by spam-filtering company
Brightmail was spam, it says.

The federal law authorizes the Federal Trade Commission to create a
"do not spam" list. It bars spammers from disguising their
identities and harvesting addresses from the Web. Commercial messages
must include opt-out options. But the Can-Spam Act has also affected
businesses in other ways, including:

? Most companies are building new internal e-mail controls to make sure
they don't send e-mail to customers who've asked not to be e-mailed. That
often means building a system to delete names from customer databases.
That's tricky because customer names sometimes are in multiple databases.
The law gives companies 10 business days to process an opt-out request.

Tweaking e-mail systems is "not a snap, but not
insurmountable," says Dan Jaffe, executive vice president of the
Association of National Advertisers. Last year, the association developed
guidelines advising members, such as Procter & Gamble, how to
navigate the law.

? Some small businesses are ditching e-mail marketing. Mike O'Brien,
co-founder of Financial-Aid.com, stopped last year. He calculated it
would cost $100,000 a year in personnel and technology to make his
company's e-mail system comply with the law. Instead, he increased
advertising with Microsoft MSN and Yahoo.
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Federal Computer Week
Idaho governor calls for tech office
BY Diane Frank 
Jan. 13, 2004  

Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne this week announced the creation of a new
Office of Science and Technology to lead the state's continued efforts to
enhance both areas.

In his State of the State address on Jan. 12, Kempthorne proposed a new
investment of $100,000 to start the office, but the money will also build
on existing projects implemented following recommendations from the
state's Science and Technology Advisory Council.

The council advises the state on how science and technology can enhance
Idaho's economy, and contributes to the development and implementation of
the state's information technology strategic plan. Projects already
underway include centers across the state that allow agencies to
interface with universities and technology companies, and tech-related
tax credits for research and development centers and broadband access.

"You've seen the importance of science and technology to Idaho's
economy," Kempthorne said. "I believe it now deserves full-time
attention."

Kempthorne named Karl Tueller, deputy director of the Idaho Commerce
Department, to head the new office. 

The governor also said the state will soon launch the Idaho Student
Information Management System (ISIMS). The system will serve as a
statewide resource for student information  such as grades,
attendance records and transcripts  and curriculum development and
management. Teachers, students, parents and administrators will have
access to different areas of the system.
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