Mandating Efficiency, Infighting at SEIU and Privacy Mavens Try to Shut Down Google
Congress considers new regulations on energy efficiency for home appliances.
One of the nation’s largest unions faces dissention in its ranks.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) petitions the Federal Trade Commission to shut down Google’s web applications over consumer privacy concerns.
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1. ENVIRONMENT
Congress considers new regulations on energy efficiency for home appliances.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: General Counsel Sam Kazman on why he’s skeptical of mandated efficiency:
“When Congress talks about ‘efficiency mandates’ and ‘saving consumers money’ in the same bill, it’s time for the public to run for the hills. If new technologies will truly save consumers money, we don’t need Congress to mandate them. And when Congress does mandate them, it’s a good hint that those are lousy technologies.”
2. BUSINESS
One of the nation’s largest unions faces dissention in its ranks.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Editorial Director Ivan Osorio on the postmodern union-on-union fight:
“The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is being denounced by a group of its own employees for doing, well, nothing wrong or illegal, but something that SEIU wants to keep businesses it unionizes from doing: laying off staff and contracting out some operations.”
3. TECHNOLOGY
The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) petitions the Federal Trade Commission to shut down Google’s web applications over consumer privacy concerns.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Information Policy Analyst Ryan Radia on why EPIC is overreacting:
“Watchdog activist groups like EPIC can play a useful role in the public discourse on privacy, helping to publicize unsavory behavior by companies and educating consumers about keeping data secure. Unfortunately, however, these groups’ admirable focus on protecting privacy sometimes edges on the myopic, causing them to overreact to data breaches and sometimes even call for regulatory interventions that are decidedly anti-consumer. EPIC’s latest complaint about Google is a classic example of this.”
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