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[IP] Intel privacy license - suggested post for IP



From: Miller1, John S
Sent: Thursday, November 02, 2006 1:18 PM
To: 'David Farber'
Cc: Hoffman, David Legal
Subject: Intel privacy license - suggested post for IP



Professor Farber,



I am attaching below (and as a word document) information regarding an open-source-style license aimed at preserving information privacy that Intel has been working on with a group of privacy law experts. David Hoffman discussed this concept with you when you were in Santa Clara back in September, and you were receptive to posting information regarding the privacy license on your IP list at the time – would you still be willing to do so? It would really be great if we were able to solicit feedback on this concept from the readers of your IP. Per your suggestion, we have requested that your readers reply with comments to the IP list – would you be willing to forward to us any comments you receive that you deem not worthy of publication to the IP?



Although I think the suggested post is fairly self-explanatory, I’d be happy to answer any additional questions you might have regarding the privacy license concept, or to address any issues you might have concerning the post itself. For your information, all of the individuals mentioned in the text have expressly authorized that their names be used for this purpose.



Thank You and Best Regards,



John Miller



______________________________________________
John S. Miller, Esq. | Privacy and Security Policy Manager
Corporate Technology Group | Technical Policy and Standards

Intel Corporation | JF2-96 | 2111 NE 25th Ave | Hillsboro, OR 97124
direct: 503 712 5082 | mobile: 646 345 8716 | fax: 503 264 1578
email: john.s.miller1@xxxxxxxxx


* * *

Intel is pleased to announce an open-source-style license aimed at preserving information privacy. Intel has been working on this license language with a group of privacy law experts, in connection with Intel’s release of a location-aware software platform. Our collective vision is for the privacy-protective terms of the license to be eventually adopted by the open-source community, structured as an addendum to open-source license(s).



The concept of adapting the open source licensing model to encourage social norms protective of end user privacy grew out of conversations among a group of researchers, academics, and lawyers. The group includes academics at several universities, including UC Berkeley and the University of Washington, several prominent lawyers and Intel Corporation, including: Deirdre K. Mulligan, a Clinical Professor of Law at Boalt Hall School of Law, Director of the Samuelson Law, Technology and Public Policy Clinic, and a Director of the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology; Pamela Samuelson, the Richard M. Sherman Distinguished Professor of Law at Boalt Hall, and a Director of the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology; Elliot Maxwell, a Fellow of the Communications Program at Johns Hopkins University and a Distinguished Research Fellow of the eBusiness Research Center of Pennsylvania State University; Becky Burr, a partner at the law firm of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr; and Paul M. Schwartz, a Professor of Law at University of California, Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall). Working together, we have devised an innovative approach to protecting social norms around privacy as location-aware computing evolves.



This group came together soon after Intel’s development of a location- aware computing technology. We collectively became concerned about potential misuses of location-aware technology, particularly in cases of vulnerable people like battered spouses. Intel’s goal was to release this technology in open source, but wanted to discuss the possibilities of adapting the open-source licensing model to encourage social norms protective of end user privacy.



In discussions that took place over the past year and a half, the group devised the idea of adding an addendum to an open-source license. This addendum, as currently drafted, discloses to the end user what information is being collected and how long the information will be kept, and requires that the developer incorporate opt-out capability into the software systems based on the licensed code.



Further, the addendum is designed to be adaptable to different technology areas, e.g. location-aware computing, medical device software, etc. But we do expect that it will undergo various iterations as we work to continuously improve the terms of the addendum.



Currently Intel has drafted a software license by attaching the terms of the privacy addendum to the text of the Eclipse Public License. Intel is releasing software it calls POLS (Privacy Observant Location System) under this license. Because we would prefer to release our software under an “approved” open-source license, we are currently initiating discussions with the Open Source Initiative to encourage the adoption of the Privacy Amendment as an acceptable amendment for use in conjunction with OSI’s approved open source licenses (as appropriate).



To that end, the group plans to work with OSI and the open source community to further refine the privacy addendum, and to ultimately get to a point where the privacy addendum can serve as an “OSI approved” addendum to be added to OSI-approved open source licenses for technology implicating end-user privacy concerns, and made available to the open source community at large. We believe this is an innovative approach to addressing privacy issues. We believe that a bottoms-up effort to encourage the development of privacy-sensitive social norms is necessary and in fact critical for both privacy and public adoption of the technology. We post this information here, with the hope that others will see value in this approach, and pursue similar methods for providing privacy protection for users of technology.



More information is available at: http:// privacyaddendum.seattle.intel-research.net/. Please reply to this list with comments.





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