Government Wants Internet Firms to Keep Online Activity Records for Two Years

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Joseph Menn:

Gonzales and Mueller asked Google Inc., Time Warner Inc.’s AOL and other companies to preserve the data at a May 26 meeting, citing their value to investigations into child-pornography distribution and terrorism. Internet companies typically keep customer histories for only a few days or weeks.

The Justice Department said Thursday that it was not seeking to have e-mail content archived, just information about the websites people visit and those with whom they correspond.

Beyond law enforcement, though, the trove also could be available to lawyers arguing civil lawsuits — including divorce cases and suits against people suspected of swapping copyrighted movie and music files online. Privacy advocates fear the user histories could be exploited by criminal investigators conducting inappropriate exploration or pursuing minor cases.

“This is not simply limited to kiddie porn or terrorism. It’s a real break with precedent,” said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the nonprofit Electronic Privacy Information Center. “Data retention is open-ended. The government is saying, ‘Keep everything about everyone and we’ll sort it out later.’ ”

Google vs Microsoft

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Barry Ritholtz:

I’ve heard all sorts of chatter about the Google foray into spreadsheets, and none of it resonates with me. Here are 3 key aspects of this worth thinking about:

1. Strategically, Google is shooting at half of the Microsoft franchise

Microsoft, despite alot of hoopla you have heard about all its other product offerings, makes the vast lion’s share of its money via its Operating System and via Office. Nothing else it does is generates nearly the profitable cash flow as those two money printing presses do.

Think long term strategy: From a military perspective, Google is opening a second front in the war Microsoft launched against them. You want to come after our core busines? Allow us to return the favor.

BABY LEFT FOR DEAD IS ALL GROWN UP

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Diana Walsh:

The temperature outside on the night of Dec. 30, 1987, was 45 and dropping. Cold for most anyone, but perilous for a newborn baby girl wrapped in a towel and stuffed in a brown paper bag like trash.

She probably wasn’t meant to be found alive.

When Steve Gibbons, a California Highway Patrol officer, pulled off Interstate 280 to stop and stretch his legs, she was just hours old. Her temperature had plummeted to a dangerous 90 degrees. If she had been there much longer, she would have died near the intersection of Cañada and Edgewood roads in Redwood City.

But Gibbons heard the baby’s cry.

Eyes in the West Are on Federal Land Sale

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Julie Cart:

Its mild climate, stunning scenery and proximity to several national parks have helped make Washington County one of the five fastest-growing counties in the nation. But like many rural Western counties, it has little room to expand: 87% of its land is owned by the federal government.

Now, Utah’s congressional delegation has a plan to remedy the problem, one that is being closely watched by nearly a dozen Western counties with similar growing pains. The plan is also being scrutinized by conservationists who warn that it would set a dangerous precedent, making thousands of acres of public land available for private development as well as offering a windfall for local agencies and special deals for politically influential officials and property owners.

Using Competition to Reform Healthcare

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Michael E. Porter and Elizabeth Olmsted Teisberg:

The starting point for developing strategy in any field is to define the relevant business or businesses in which an organization competes. Health care delivery is no different. Health care providers do not think of themselves as businesses, but they are in the business of providing services to patients. (Those who are uncomfortable with the notion of businesses in health care can substitute the term service lines.)

The question “What business are we in?” is an important one because it guides an organization’s thinking about who its customer is, what needs it is trying to meet, and how it should organize. Implicit in every business definition is a view of how value is created. Aligning an organization’s view of value with actual value is a precondition for excellent performance.

In some fields, defining the relevant business is straightforward. In health care this is not the case, in part because of the way medicine has traditionally been structured and organized. Many hospitals, for example, see themselves in the “hospital” business or the “health care delivery” business, competing with other hospitals based on their overall service offering. An even broader definition of the business, “health care,” is common among experts in health policy. This leads them to favor large health systems, believing that health care is best organized by combining insurance and health care delivery into one vertically integrated, full-line system.