Barack Obama
Barack Obama has already been approached by the Electronic Frontier Foundation

Privacy group presses Obama on policy

Electronic Frontier Foundation asks for new measures

Shaun Nichols in San Francisco

Barack Obama is being lobbied by privacy advocates for stricter protections just days after his election victory.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has posted a wish-list for the incoming president, urging Obama to support ordinary citizens and repeal several laws from the Bush administration.

Advertisement

Headlining the list is the repeal of the FISA Amendments Act. The controversial legislation was passed earlier this year and signed into law by Bush.

The legislation gives telcos that had cooperated with information requests from the National Security Agency immunity from civil lawsuits.

The EFF had strongly opposed the original plan to shield telcos and the revised 'compromise' which only partially rolled back the protections.

Also on the list of requests for Obama is a commitment to rely less on the state secrets privilege, which allows the White House to withhold information it deems pertinent to national security.

The privacy group claims that the Bush administration relied on the privilege far too often, including in its efforts to prevent investigation of its electronic spying programme.

"The new administration should voluntarily reduce its use of the privilege, and work with Congress to reform the privilege and ensure that claims of state secrecy are subject to independent judicial scrutiny," said the EFF.

Other requests on the list include strengthening the Electronic Communications Privacy Act to prevent government spying, and a complete repeal of the Real ID national identification programme.

Many in the tech world are optimistic about the Obama administration's ability to work with the technology industry.

Obama made greater use of the internet for his campaign and advocacy programmes than any presidential candidate to date, and has already vowed to appoint the first national chief technology officer following his inauguration.

  • Have your say
  • Send to a friend
  • Print
  • Digg
  • Reddit
  • Share

Do you agree?

Related whitepapers

Related jobs

Most watched

Xperia X1

Video Review: Sony Ericsson Xperia X1

First Looks Editor Ian Williams gets hands on with the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1

iPhone

Video Review: iPhone 3GS

We put Apple's latest iPhone through its paces

IT white papers

Search white papers

Top categories

Poll

Poll: Summer smartphones

Poll: Summer smartphones

Which smartphone will you be taking to the beach this summer?

View poll results

Advertisement

Advertisement

Newsletter signup

Sign up for our range of FREE newsletters:

Existing User

Newsletter user login:

Enter email address to edit your newsletter preferences

Job of the week

Search thousands of IT jobs :

Search thousands of IT jobs:

Advanced search

Hiring now on ComputingCareers:

Related IT jobs

Search thousands of IT jobs :

Search thousands of IT jobs:

Advanced search

Spotlight

HTC Hero

Hands on with the HTC Hero

V3.co.uk gets a walk through of the Hero, which includes...

NetGear ReadyNAS NVX

Review: NetGear ReadyNAS NVX

NetGear's four-bay compact network-attached storage gets a serious speed boost

AMD

AMD adds to six-core Opteron line up

New HE processors promise even lower power consumption

Adobe Systems

Adobe launches ColdFusion 9 and ColdFusion Builder

Firm promises enhanced developer productivity

Primary Navigation