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Summary:
The growth of the Internet may be affected by a number of issues being debated by Congress. This report summarizes several key technology policy issues. 1. Internet privacy issues encompass concerns about information collected by website operators and by "spyware," and separately about the extent to which law enforcement officials or employers monitor an individual's Internet activities. The 2001 USA PATRIOT Act (P.L. 107-56) has raised concerns among privacy advocates because of new authorities granted to law enforcement officials. 2. Broadband Internet access gives users the ability to send and receive data at speeds far greater than current Internet access over traditional telephone lines. With deployment of broadband technologies beginning to accelerate, Congress is seeking to ensure fair competition and timely broadband deployment to all sectors and geographical locations of American society. 3. Since the mid-1990s, commercial transactions on the Internet -- called electronic commerce (e-commerce) -- have grown substantially. Among the issues facing Congress are encryption procedures to protect e-commerce transactions, extension of the three-year tax moratorium on domestic e-commerce taxation, the impact of the USA PATRIOT Act, and how the policies of the European Union and the World Trade Organization (WTO) may affect U.S. e-commerce activities. 4. The new federal anti-spam law, the CAN-SPAM Act, permits, but does not require, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to create a "do not e-mail" list similar to the National Do Not Call list for telemarketers. Whether to require the FTC to establish such a list, and the extent to which the new law will actually reduce the amount of spam, remain congressional issues in the wake of the law's enactment. 5. The administration and governance of the Internet's domain name system (DNS) is currently under transition from federal to private sector control. Congress is monitoring how the Department of Commerce is managing and overseeing this transition in order to ensure competition and promote fairness among all Internet constituencies. 6. The evolving role of the Internet in the political economy of the United States continues to attract attention in the 108th Congress. Three major themes characterize legislative activity and interest: Internet infrastructure development, resource management, and the provision of online services by the government (called "e-government").
