Rigged? Google, Facebook funding group that will police them

A knowledgeable source said the draft proposals would let large sites like Google and Facebook ignore when users push the “Do Not Track” button. Also, they could use the data they get from users to power their ad-serving products that place ads on third-party sites.

“I am troubled that organizations in Washington, D.C., that claim to represent Internet users on privacy issues also take money from the companies that create the privacy risks,” said Marc Rotenberg of the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

Some say the developing rule is weak and makes “Do Not Track” pointless. Others want the Federal Trade Commission to jump in, as they did with the “Do Not Call” mandate on telemarketers.

But the Center for Democracy and Technology told the Washington Examiner that the concerns about their involvement are baseless and what’s more, in the end it’s up to the Internet players to voluntarily adopt the rule.

“CDT prides itself in bringing all sides to policy deliberations, but our policy stances and advocacy work are not influenced by donors,” said spokesman Brian Wesolowski.

Justin Brookman, CDT’s director of Consumer Privacy Project and a co-chairman of the “Do Not Track” working group, also dismissed the claims that big-money Internet firms will be given a pass. “I know some people have been trying to plant that story for a while, but it’s not true. Facebook and Google can’t monitor what you do on third-party sites,” he said.

“And of course, the standard is voluntary — no one has to implement,” he added. “Not many third parties are honoring today — including Facebook and Google, unfortunately.”

PLANNED PARENTHOOD COLLEGE GROUPS OUTNUMBERED 4-1

Pro-life student groups have been claiming for years that their supporters outnumber abortion supporters, and now there’s proof.

As activists nationwide prepare for Thursday’s annual March for Life to protest the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, Planned Parenthood boasted that they had 200 groups on college campuses.

But that number is down from prior years when they claimed some 225 and is far outnumbered by just one anti-abortion college and high-school group called Students for Life of America. President Kristan Hawkins told the Examiner that they have 838 college offices and are expanding.

“There is an intensity gap and it obviously favors us,” she said.

She credited science and technology with boosting support. “This generation sees the issue differently. They see the pictures, the ultrasounds. To many, it’s a social justice cause.”

WARNING: THE MOB IS GETTING INTO HACKING, EXTORTION

The hacking attack of Sony Pictures was just a dry run of what cyber experts expect in the next wave of corporate Internet invasions.

Former Rep. Mike Rogers, who was chairman of the House Select Committee on Intelligence before retiring last year, is warning that the mob is moving into hacking with extortion plans.

“I think what you will find is that you will get international organized crime groups ramping up their extortion game, where I go in, I steal your intellectual property, and you can get it back for a price,” he said in an interview.

But unlike the surprise of the Sony hack, Rogers is going public with the pending cyber threat and others facing Americans, companies and the government. He has been hired as a CNN cyber expert and given a daily slot on hundreds of stations owned by Cumulus Media.

QUOTED

“It used to be that we said we have a five-minute attention span and now we have a 144-character attention span.”

– Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in an interview discussing his new book, God, Guns, Grits and Gravy, and how Twitter and the proliferation of websites have changed the media’s coverage of politics and potentially his likely bid for president.

Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].