CNET has just run the guest column, “Just say no to Ma Bell-era Net neutrality regulation,” Adam Thierer and I wrote in response to “Just say no to fake Net neutrality” by Derek Turner (of Free Press), which decried the win-win-win compromise suggested by Amazon’s Paul Misener, just as Free Press has more recently denounced the compromise proposed by Google and Verizon.

We make a few key points:

1. History demonstrates the dangers of regulatory capture, and the costs to consumers of regulation from lost investment and innovation.
2. These dangers and costs far outweigh the purported benefits of regulation (in addressing a non-existent harm).
3. Broadband markets are competitive enough to prevent the kinds of abuses advocates of net neutrality regulation fret about.
4. Government could foster more broadband competition by deregulating spectrum and local wireline franchising.

I’ve been having a lively debate with the commenters on the piece, so feel free to join in! Unfortunately, we don’t seem to be getting much substantive engagement with our argument—just the usual mix of “These guys are just corporate whores!” and “Can’t you see the sky is falling?”

by Eric Beach & Adam Thierer

In our ongoing “Privacy Solutions Series” we have been outlining various user-empowerment or user “self-help” tools that allow Internet users to better protect their privacy online. These tools and methods form an important part of a layered approach that we believe offers a more effective alternative to government-mandated regulation of online privacy. [See entries 1, 2, 3, 4]  In this installment, we will be exploring CCleaner, a free Windows-based tool created by UK-based software developer Piriform that scrubs you computer’s hard drive and cleans its registry. We’ll describe how CCleaner helps you destroy data and protect your private information.

Whenever you move files to the recycling bin and subsequently purge the recycling bin, the affected files remain on your computer. In other words, deleting files from the recycling bin does not remove them from the computer. The reason for this is important and, in many ways, beneficial. In some respects, many computer file systems work like an old library catalog system. A file is like a catalog card and contains the reference to the actual place on the hard drive where the information contained in the file is stored. When a user deletes a file, the computer does not actually clean all the affected hard drive space. Instead, to extend the analogy, the computer simply removes the card catalog entry that points to the hard drive space where the file is contained and frees up this space for new files. The reason this is usually beneficial is that cleaning the hard drive space occupied by a file can take a while. If you want evidence of this, look no further than the length of time required to reformat a hard drive (reformatting a hard drive actually clears the disk’s contents). The practical implication of the way hard drives work is that when you delete an important memo from your computer, it is not actually gone. Similarly, when you clear your browsing history, it is not gone. The bottom line is that an individual who can access your hard drive (a thief, the government, etc.) could view many or all of the files you deleted.

The solution to this problem is to ensure that when a file is deleted, the space on the hard drive occupied by that file is not simply flagged as available space but is entirely rewritten with unintelligible data. One of the best programs for accomplishing this is CCleaner (which formerly stood for “Crap Cleaner”!)

CCleaner enables you to select a host of potentially sensitive files (e.g., recycling bin, browser history, memory dumps, and cookies) and definitively delete them by writing over them at the root of the file system. In particular, CCleaner enables the user to choose whether files should be entirely overwritten once, thrice (DOD 5220.22-M standard), seven times (NSA standard), or 37 times (Gutmann standard). The end result of this is that users can entirely remove a file from their machines. As an added benefit, CCleaner also allows users to delete files that may not be sensitive in nature, but are not necessary for everyday computer tasks and as a result, their continued presence slows down the computer.

The best part of CCleaner is that it is free, stable, safe, and extremely easy to use. It has won numerous awards and, according to the CCleaner website, the tool has been downloaded an astounding 300 million times.

To download CCLeaner, visit http://www.ccleaner.com or http://download.cnet.com/ccleaner. More information about CCleaner is embedded down below, including a couple of YouTube videos. The most important tip to using CCleaner is ensuring that all files that are deleted from the recycling bin are subsequently overwritten (and therefore cannot be uncovered by someone who later accesses your hard drive).  This feature is not enable by default. To turn it on, do the following: (1) Open CCleaner (2) Click on “Options” from the bar on the left hand side of the program. (3) Click on “Settings”. (4) Click on “Secure file deletion (Slower)”.  The adjoining exhibit shows what that screen looks like.

For more information about CCleaner, please see the following helpful sites:

• CCleaner Help
• CCleaner Documentation
• Wikipedia entry for CCleaner
• CNet Download Center page for CCleaner
• a coupe of YouTube video tutorials follow…

Just wanted draw everyone’s attention to a couple of great podcasts about online safety issues that include comments from members of the Internet Safety Technical Task Force (ISTTF). As I mentioned a few weeks ago, the ISTTF project and final report represent a major milestone in the discussion about online safety in America, and I was honored to serve as a member of this task force.

This in-depth “Radio Berkman” podcast featuring ISTTF director John Palfrey and co-director Dena Sacco is a really excellent (but lengthy!) overview of the ISTTF’s word. Here’s a shorter podcast that Prof. Palfrey did with Larry Magid of CNet. And I also recommend this excellent NPR “On the Media” podcast featuring my friend Stephen Balkam of the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI).

For those interested, down below you will find a running list I have been keeping of coverage of the ISTTF. (I will try to keep updating this list here).

Articles and podcasts about the ISTTF:

• ISTTF director John Palfrey discusses the report on this short podcast with Larry Magid as well as this longer one from the Berkman Center
• ISTTF co-director danah boyd comments on the report on her blog
• ISTTF member Larry Magid of ConnectSafely.org: “Net Threat to Minors Less Than Feared,” CNet News.com
• ISTTF member Anne Collier of Net Family News: “Key Crossroads for Net Safety“
• ISTTF member Stephen Balkam of FOSI featured on an NPR podcast about our work
• ISTTF member John Morris of CDT: “Deconstructing Reaction to Net Safety Task Force Report“
• ISTTF member Marsali Hancock, President of iKeepSafe blog essay about the task force
• AGs respond to report in interview with Emily Steel of the Wall Street Journal: “The Case for Age Verification“
• New York Times article by Brad Stone: “Report Calls Online Threats to Children Overblown“
• Wall Street Journal article by Emily Steel: “No Easy Answer for Protecting Kids Online“
• Associated Press story by Anick Jesdanun: “Panel: Technology Alone Can’t Protect Kids Online“
• Chronicle of Higher Education Wired Campus blog entry by Tracy Mitrano, “Report Weighs the Benefits and Risks of Social Networks,”
• PC World article by Jaikumar Vijayan: “Study Accused of Exaggerating Kids Online Safety“
• PC World blog post by Jaikumar Vijayan: “Are Internet Child Safety Concerns Overblown or Understated?”

Background info:

• an old blog entry of mine about the formation of the task force
• an old paper of mine about the agreement between MySpace and AGs that led to the formation of the ISTTF
• an essay of mine from the ISTTF’s mid-point: “Age Verification Debate Continues; Schools Now at Center of Discussion“
• my big white paper on the dangers of mandatory age verification
• my book: “Parental Controls and Online Child Protection: A Survey of Tools and Methods”
• my final ISTTF statement

(HT The 463) Forget the sex offenders on MySpace, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal (and C|Net reporter Elinor Mills) should be investigating reincarnation on Facebook!!

Terrorism too!

Seriously, they appear to have been completely taken in by a joke MySpace page.

Declan McCullagh, CNET News’ chief political correspondent, does a nice job debunking the privacy fears about Google Flu Trends that a couple of pro-regulatory privacy advocates have set forth. Flu Trends is a very cool application that uses search terms as an indicator of possible upticks in flu-related illnesses in various regions of the U.S.  Of course, it didn’t take long for some Chicken Littles to rain on the parade with their irrational fears about data privacy. As Declan notes, however, there is no personally identifiable information being collected or shared here. It’s just search term analysis. Moreover, if these privacy-sensitive advocates are really that paranoid about it, they should just just Tor or another anonymizer to cloak their searches instead of calling in the regulators to suffocate another technology while its still in the cradle.

Anyway, make sure to read Declan’s excellent piece.

C|Net’s Charles Cooper reports today that Department of Justice trustbusters are considering a comprehensive antitrust attack on Google.

Sources who have provided testimony to the government say a departmental debate revolves around whether antitrust regulators should challenge Google’s proposed revenue-sharing deal with Yahoo, or go for the whole enchilada–and haul Google into court on broader charges related to its dominance in search advertising.

C|Net’s Declan McCullagh speculated earlier this week about how Google would fare under an Obama administration:

[Obama’s] technology campaign platform pledges to “reinvigorate antitrust enforcement” and “step up review of merger activity.” He complained to the American Antitrust Institute that “the current administration has what may be the weakest record of antitrust enforcement of any administration in the last half century.” If the Bush administration’s current antitrust probe of Google, coupled with this week’s apparent threat of a federal lawsuit, amounts to a “weak” record, imagine what antitrust true believers in an Obama administration might do. (A three-way split of Google into search, applications, and display ads, anyone?)

I’m not sure whether structural separation is on Google’s near-term horizon, but Washington, D.C.’s parasite economy will make its move.