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Monday, March 12, 2007
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Spying Too Secret for the Courts. AT&T and the government tell an appeals court that the case against the telecom for allegedly helping the government spy on Americans is too secret for any court, despite the Administration's admission it did spy on Americans without warrants. [Wired News: Top Stories]
10:33:23 PM 
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Government Sites Fail FOIA Rules. A study shows 79 percent of federal agencies are violating a Freedom of Information Act amendment requiring they post records online and help citizens request info over the internet. In 27B Stroke 6. Plus: States' secrecy penalties. [Wired News: Top Stories]
10:14:21 PM
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Protect E-Voting [~] Support H.R. 811. After a long fight, we have reached the point where a major e-voting reform bill has a chance to become U.S. law. I[base ']m referring to HR 811, sponsored by my Congressman, Rush Holt, and co-sponsored by many others. After reading the bill carefully, and discussing with students and colleagues the arguments of its supporters and critics, I am convinced that it is a very good bill that deserves our support.
The main provisions of the bill would require e-voting technologies to have a paper ballot that is (a) voter-verified, (b) privacy-preserving, and (c) durable. Paper ballots would be hand-recounted, and compared to the electronic count, at randomly-selected precincts after every election.
The most important decision in writing such a bill is which technologies should be categorically banned. The bill would allow (properly designed) optical scan systems, touch-screen systems with a suitable paper trail, and all-paper systems. Paperless touchscreens and lever machines would be banned.
Some activists have argued that the bill doesn[base ']t go far enough. A few say that all use of computers in voting should be banned. I think that[base ']s a mistake, because it sacrifices the security benefits computers can provide, if they[base ']re used well.
Others argue that touch-screen voting machines should be banned even if they have good paper trails. I think that goes too far. Touchscreens can be a useful part of a good voting system, if they[base ']re used in the right context and with a good paper trail. We shouldn[base ']t let the worst of today[base ']s insecure paperless touchscreens [~] machines that should never have been certified in the first place, and anyway would be banned by the Holt Bill for lacking a suitable paper ballot [~] sour us on the better uses of touchscreens that are possible.
One of the best parts of the bill is its random audit requirement, which selects 3% of precincts (or more in close races) at which the paper ballots will be hand counted and compared to the electronic records. This serves two useful purposes: detecting error or fraud that might have affected the election result, and providing a routine quality-control check on the vote-counting process. This part of the bill reflects a balance between the states[base '] freedom to run their own elections and the national interest in sound election management.
On the whole this is a good, strong bill. I support it, and I urge you to support it too.
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[Freedom to Tinker]
4:20:32 PM
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Open Government Gets Its Week in the Sunshine. This week is Sunshine Week -
a gentle name for celebrating the serious business of uncovering
secretive government practices. Taking its cue from the famous line by
Justice Brandeis that "sunlight is ... the best of disinfectants", this
year's Sunshine Week reflects on a year of continuing efforts to increase
government visibility, and a renewed interest by the press, activists,
and netizens in investigating its secrets.
Projects like our own Freedom of Information Act Lltigation
for Accountable Government (FLAG) project have been working hard to
use statutory tools like FOIA and the Privacy Act to uncover the misuse
of technology by the state. Josh
Richman's overview of FLAG's work in several of Sunday's papers
highlights the work our Washington office does, from uncovering the
edges of the warrantless wiretapping program, to probing the connections
between the NSA and Windows Vista's development.
EFF's work monitoring Washington developments in the world of technology
are helped by many other dedicated sites, like OpenCRS, which distributes the
fascinating, but previously restricted, Congressional Research Service
reports, and OpenSecrets,
which can illustrate Washington connections that are otherwise obscure
(want to know why Bill Frist was so keen on the Audio Flag? Inquire
within.) Researchers at EPIC,
coalition groups like Open
The Government and the politicians behind H.R.1309,
which seeks to update the FOIA laws to react faster to inquiries, help
keep the tools of exposing government sharp and relevant.
Meanwhile, across the Net, hackers and activists have been working to
extract, sift and re-present what information federal and state
governments do provide in a way that ordinary citizens can use.
There's now a wealth of sources to choose from, from the amazing work by
the volunteer-run GovTrack.us, to
the new OpenCongress that
builds on GovTrack's database and more, to the many new APIs that can
stitch all of this data together.
Each of this tools, like each of our organizations, builds on the
others. This week, the Sunlight Foundation is sponsoring a $2000 prize for
the best Web mash-up of Congressional information, as judged by EFF
friends Esther Dyson, Jimmy Wales, and Craig Newmark. We look forward to
seeing how far the sunlight breaks this year. [EFF: Deep Links]
4:04:59 PM
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© Copyright 2007 Paul Hardwick.
Last update: 3/18/07; 6:09:34 PM.
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