EFF presses Obama on policy

Just days after his election to the presidency, Barack Obama is being lobbied by privacy advocates for stricter protections.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has posted a wish list for the agenda of the incoming president, asking Obama to take a hard stance in favor of users and repeal several laws from the Bush administration.

Headlining the EFF list was the repeal of the FISA Amendments Act. The controversial legislation was passed earlier this year and signed into law by Bush. Under the act, telcos who had cooperated with information requests from the NSA were given immunity from civil lawsuits.

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

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

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

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

Many in the tech world are optimistic about the Obama administration's ability to work with the technology world. Obama has thus far made deeper use of the internet for his campaign and advocacy programs than any presidential candidate to date, and has already vowed to name the fist ever national CTO following his inauguration.

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