Online Privacy, Genetic Discrimination and Grand Theft Auto IV

1. TECHNOLOGY

Privacy advocates lobby for a “do-not-track” registry to regulate how online advertisers can target Internet users.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Technology Policy Analyst Cord Blomquist on the privacy tools that are already available:

 

“First, tracking people online is a bit different from calling folks in their homes. Telemarketing, while highly effective in terms of sales produced per dollar of marketing money spent, is still orders of magnitude more expensive than spamming or collecting data online without consent. Both of these activities are illegal today, but they still occur. They occur so much that spam-filtering technology contains some of the most advanced natural language recognition and parsing software created. Cory Doctorow has mused that the first artificial intelligences will emerge from Spam and anti-Spam computer arrays.”

 

 

2. LEGAL

The Senate passes the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act (GINA).

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Special Projects Counsel Hans Bader on what the legislation is lacking:

 

“Last year, I criticized the GINA bill in the National Law Journal for lacking a ‘direct threat’ exception that would allow employers not to use people with hazardous conditions (like a genetic tendency to seizures) for jobs where they could unintentionally cause harm to the public (like a person prone to seizures driving a bus). Existing laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act contain such an exception. ”

 

 

3. ENTERTAINMENT

Analysts expect record-breaking sales for controversial new video game Grand Theft Auto IV.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Research Associate Ryan Radia on the aesthetic value that can be found in video games:

 

“As game budgets have swelled and public interest in gaming has expanded, more games than ever transcend the stereotype of gaming as a juvenile pursuit with little artistic merit, reminding us that games can be artistic expressions on par with books, movies, or songs. Critics whose gaming experience consists of having played Pacman in an arcade may belittle gaming as a trivial pastime, but anybody who has played Bioshock or Gears of War or Oblivion knows better. Games can critique the harsh realities of modern society and offer insight into the nature of the human soul in ways that less interactive forms of media cannot. Likewise, games deserve both critical admiration and legal protection.”

 

Blog feature: For more news and analysis, updated throughout the day, visit CEI’s blog, Open Market.

 

FOR MORE INFORMATION

To contact a CEI expert for comment or interviews, please call the CEI communications department at 202-331-2273 or email to [email protected].