At his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, attorney Charles James, who's expected to become the head of the U.S. Justice Department's antitrust division, said that the high-tech industry should be as competitive as any other and that the role of antitrust law is to ensure such competition. He gave no indication of whether the Bush administration would shift course on the Microsoft lawsuit. The merits of company privacy policies were debated today as an FTC commissioner criticized them for being confusing and unwieldy while some corporate privacy officers said the federal government was partly to blame for the complex statements. The Bush administration's nominee to head the Justice Department's antitrust division gave no specific opinion on the Microsoft case during a confirmation hearing, saying only that the high-tech industry should be competitive and that antitrust law should ensure such competition. Wireless devices are turning up at federal agencies in increasing numbers, but their spread is outpacing federal policies for dealing with them.
Security is the top issue.
Although many federal workers want full-featured wireless devices, attendees at a conference in Washington said there's a continuing disconnect between end users and IT managers regarding wireless deployment in government agencies. The federal government's efforts to gather computer crime data from its own agencies faces problems. The Bush administration is ordering federal agencies to consider outsourcing an increased amount of their services, and IT operations are viewed as prime candidates. The Bush administration is ordering federal agencies to consider outsourcing an increased amount of their services, and IT operations are viewed as prime candidates. But the White House said President Bush doesn't plan to fill the privacy czar position created by the Clinton administration.