Al Franken's Blog, page 71
December 18, 2012
Ars Technica: Senate committee votes to ban “stalker apps”
If a bill being pushed by Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) becomes law, mobile apps will have to ask a smartphone user’s permission before they use any locational information. Many popular apps already do that, but Franken’s bill would make it a legal requirement.
The proposal passed an important hurdle today, as the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to advance the bill. Some commercial interests, including a major software group, have opposed the bill. So far committee Republicans have been receptive to their complaints.
However, today’s vote showed both Republicans and Democrats on the committee appear to be united on one issue—that so-called “stalker apps” need to be banned. The senior Republican on the committee, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), said he supports the parts of the bill banning these apps, but is concerned about other parts of the bill, The Hill reported today.
© U.S. Senator Al Franken, Minnesota -- Official Campaign Website, 2012. |
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Independent: Franken: Farm bill can get done
MARSHALL – Count U.S. Sen. Al Franken among senators whose frustration over the lack of a farm bill is close to boiling over.
Franken, D-Minn., spoke with Minnesota reporters Thursday and discussed his continuing push for a new five-year bill. He said he would like to see the new bill included in the final budget package, which, of course, continues to be hotly debated as the “fiscal cliff” deadline nears.
“This whole year, it’s been a top priority of mine to get a farm bill done,” Franken said. “The farm bill is obviously very important to Minnesota. One out of every five jobs in Minnesota is tied to agriculture, and I’ve been going all around the state talking to farmers and they say they want a bill, they need a bill, so they can do some planning and have some certainty.”
© U.S. Senator Al Franken, Minnesota -- Official Campaign Website, 2012. |
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Post Bulletin: Al Franken: Bipartisan Farm Bill makes sense
If members of Congress learned anything from the recent election, it should be this: the American people want their leaders to stop the bickering, overcome the gridlock, and work together to solve problems.
During the current negotiations to avert the “fiscal cliff,” I am pressing Senate leaders to include a bipartisan — and fiscally responsible — Farm Bill as an important part of the budget solution.
The Senate passed a five-year measure back in June after months of work by Senators who reached across party lines to agree on a final package. Where differences existed, Senators from both parties worked them out. The result was a bill that not only reforms and modernizes our agriculture programs and strengthens the farm safety net, but also creates jobs and economic vitality in communities in Minnesota and across the country.
© U.S. Senator Al Franken, Minnesota -- Official Campaign Website, 2012. |
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December 14, 2012
NYT: Apps for Children Fall Short on Disclosure to Parents, Report Says
Several hundred of the most popular educational and gaming mobile apps for children fail to give parents basic explanations about what kinds of personal information the apps collect from children, who can see that data and what they use it for, a new federal report says.
The apps often transmit the phone number, precise location or unique serial code of a mobile device to app developers, advertising networks or other companies, according to the report by the Federal Trade Commission, released Monday. Regulators said such information could be used to find or contact children or track their activities across different apps without their parents’ knowledge or consent.
The agency reviewed 400 of the most popular children’s apps available on Google and Apple platforms, and reported that only 20 percent disclosed their data collection practices.
© U.S. Senator Al Franken, Minnesota -- Official Campaign Website, 2012. |
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December 13, 2012
WDIO: Franken Explains Bill to Curb Smartphone App ‘Stalking’
A Federal Trade Commission report reveals that some of the most popular children’s applications on smart phones are taking the users location information and sharing it with third parties without parents’ knowledge or consent.
Sen. Al Franken, D-Minnesota, tells Eyewitness News he aims to criminalize that behavior with what has been dubbed the “Stalking Apps Bill.”
The bill, according to Franken’s staff, would also close a loophole that allows stalking apps to run in secret on women’s and girl’s smartphones, before sending location information to a third party.
© U.S. Senator Al Franken, Minnesota -- Official Campaign Website, 2012. |
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December 12, 2012
WDN: Protect our children from abuse
Victor Vieth, the executive director of the National Child Protection Training Center, walks without fear into one of the deepest, darkest parts of hell. Willingly. Lovingly. Over and over again. To teach anyone who will listen how to save the world, one safe child at a time.
The man wants to end child abuse. It’s a vision at once audacious by virtue of its scope, its need to fundamentally change, worldwide, the base animal impulses of domination and violence that beget so much more of the same.
Wait.
Audacious, maybe. But more audacious still — no, tragic — that we require someone to wave their arms and jump up and down and shout to us in a voice hoarse yet steady, welcoming: Look here. Look. This here, this is the evil. This here, this is the wrong. If we do not fix this it will destroy our families, and then it will destroy our communities, and then, in turn, it will destroy each one of us.
© U.S. Senator Al Franken, Minnesota -- Official Campaign Website, 2012. |
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Politico: Senate Secret Santa all about camaraderie, coal
The Senate doesn’t appear to be a model of yuletide cheer right now.
Faced with budget negotiations, filibuster changes and immigration reform, both parties have been struggling with gridlock and divisiveness.
Well, take this, Scrooges: Sens. Al Franken and Mike Johanns held the second annual Senate Secret Santa on Monday.
Read the full story >>
© U.S. Senator Al Franken, Minnesota -- Official Campaign Website, 2012. |
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KDAL: Franken And Klobuchar Push For More Heating Assistance
WASHINGTON, D.C. (KDAL) – Both Minnesota U-S Senators, Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken, have joined a bipartisan group of 38 other senators calling on President Obama to strengthen the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). The senators are concerned that funding for the program has declined 32 percent in recent years while the number of households eligible for the assistance has increased. Klobuchar says no family should have to face a choice between buying groceries and heating their home as winter weather sets in. They’re asking the President to restore funding for the program to 4.7 billion dollars in his budget.
© U.S. Senator Al Franken, Minnesota -- Official Campaign Website, 2012. |
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December 7, 2012
CBS: Franken Bill Would Outlaw Stalking Apps
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Stalking by smartphone. It’s a growing problem, and a Minnesota lawmaker wants to stop it.
U.S. Senator Al Franken told the Judiciary Committee in Washington that GPS technology is being used for sinister means by companies that create phone apps to stalk people.
NewsRadio 830 WCCO’s Steve Murphy Reports
“Tens of thousands of women are stalked annually through the use of GPS technology” Franken told the committee of which he is a member.
© U.S. Senator Al Franken, Minnesota -- Official Campaign Website, 2012. |
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Washington Post: Location-tracking devices to require user permission under U.S. bill
Smartphones, mobile applications and in-car navigation devices would be required to get permission from consumers before collecting and sharing location data under legislation to be considered by a U.S. Senate committee this week.
Senator Al Franken, a Minnesota Democrat who introduced the measure last year, released a revised version yesterday to let companies get one-time approval from users rather than seeking permission every time location data is collected or shared. The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to consider the measure tomorrow.
Franken, chairman of a Senate Judiciary subcommittee on privacy, technology and the law, is one of several lawmakers who have focused on how technology companies collect information on the location of users and share that data with third parties including advertisers and data brokers.
© U.S. Senator Al Franken, Minnesota -- Official Campaign Website, 2012. |
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