Initial Work Plan on Change Proposals, including for next Wednesday

To the Working Group:

            W3C staff and I express appreciation for the hard and high-quality work that so many of you have put into submitting change proposals to the June Draft.  This email alerts you to the initial work plan, for the coming week.  We wanted to give you this information as soon as possible, and plan to circulate as soon as we can a more complete work plan through the end of July.

            For the call on Wednesday, July 3, we once again may go for up to 120 minutes if ittakes that long to complete the agenda.  We will attempt to keep the call to the usual 90 minutes if we can.  This email sets forth the current plan for the Wednesday call.

            De-identification.

            Perhaps not surprisingly in light of all the work done on the issue, the first topic will be to examine and discuss the multiple proposals on de-identification, as well as other provisions relating to identification.

            For this discussion, and comments on the list before Wednesday, we will address the change proposals, alphabetically from: Dan Auerbach, Rob van Eijk, Roy Fielding, and Thomas Schauf, as well as the DAA group.

            For the discussion, and comments prior to Wednesday, it would be helpful to comment on issues including: (1) how to choose between two- and three-stage proposals; (2) the pros and cons of the DAA proposed changed language, compared to the longstanding focus on language similar to the FTC’s three-part test; (3) clarifying any similarities and differences between Rob’s approach and the other two; and (4) how to think about the use of non-normative text here inaddition to normative text.

             Identification and Unique Identifiers.

            Another issue on identification and de-identification concerns the June Draft text  that “Third parties MUST NOT rely on unique identifiers for users or devices if alternative solutions are reasonably available.”

            Amy Colando proposed a change to add “technically feasible” after “reasonably available.”

            The DAA group proposed deleting this provision entirely.

            For this discussion, it would be helpful to have comments and discussion on issues including: (1) the clarity (or lack thereof) of “reasonably available” and “technically feasible”; (2) evidence that such alternatives are available today or may soon be available; and (3) reasons for or against shifting to alternatives if they become “reasonably available” and/or “technically feasible.”

             The DAA Group proposal.

            After these discussions, the DAA group is invited to explain to the group its overall proposal for a path forward to Last Call.  As I understand it, the DAA group has presented an integrated, overall proposal, where it would support what essentially is a package of proposed changes to the June Draft.

            With a presentation of this integrated package, the group can ask questions to clarify the multiple proposed changes, and begin a process of identifying areas where others in the group may agree to the proposal, or an amended version of theproposal, or else articulate reasons why they would not join a consensus on the proposal.

            In terms of work leading up to Wednesday’s call, please make proposed language changes directly to the wikis, while explaining the rationale for changes to the full list.

            Thank you, and information on other next steps will follow.  (I note, however, that I likely will have limited connectivity this weekend.)

            Peter

P.S. Please feel free to be working on the other change issues as well, as a way to move forward as effectively as possible.  The point of this email is to highlight the group work in the coming days.





Prof. Peter P. Swire
C. William O'Neill Professor of Law
Ohio State University
240.994.4142
www.peterswire.net

Beginning August 2013:
Nancy J. and Lawrence P. Huang Professor
Law and Ethics Program
Scheller College of Business
Georgia Institute of Technology