Representatives of civil society groups such as the Center for Digital Democracy, American Civil Liberties Union and Electronic Privacy Information Center will attend a Monday meeting on big data with Counselor to the President John Podesta, said an organization attending the meeting. Podesta is leading the administration’s big data review to determine whether the current U.S. policy framework addresses the challenges and privacy concerns raised by the proliferation of commercial data collection (CD Jan 24 p9). President Barack Obama directed Podesta to launch the study during his speech on changes to the government’s surveillance programs (CD Jan 21 p1). Podesta said he expects the working group to deliver its findings within the next two and a half months.

Several groups will hold what they call “The Day We Fight Back” on Tuesday protesting government surveillance, they said. The groups include the American Civil Liberties Union, Demand Progress, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Free Press, Mozilla and Tumblr, amounting to more than 4,000 groups, according to organizers. “Participating sites will be encouraging users to engage in the day of action, through website banners and other means,” organizers said in a press release (http://bit.ly/1iYb0ch). “That participation will include tens of thousands of calls and emails to Members of Congress, tweets and Facebook posts, memes and social avatars, and other viral activity.” The groups support the USA Freedom Act, which would end bulk collection of metadata, and oppose the FISA Improvements Act, a bill that cleared the Senate Intelligence Committee last fall.

Annual customer proprietary network information certifications are due March 14, the FCC said in a public notice Wednesday. The requirement applies to telecom carriers and interconnected VoIP providers, it said. “Because the CPNI rules provide important consumer protections, the Commission has taken enforcement action against telecommunications carriers and interconnected VoIP providers that were not in compliance with the requirements, and we intend to continue to strictly enforce the rules.” The docket is EB 06-36.

The Communications Workers of America is preparing to “underwrite” an ad in opposition to trade promotion authority (TPA) and is seeking a national organization to sign on to the effort, said an email circulated by CWA. Under TPA, commonly called fast-track, Congress agrees to suspend normal legislative procedure for trade bills, offering no amendments, limiting debate and making a simple up-or-down vote. “Fast track has had a difficult month because of the great work done by a broad range of groups,” and “now it’s time to do more,” said Kenneth Peres, CWA chief economist, in the email. He said the ad would “reflect the breadth of opposition to Fast Track.” CWA doesn’t have “definite plans for a particular publication at this time,” though it and others “have been raising concerns about fast track authority for” the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a spokeswoman for the union told us. Those concerns also apply to other trade deals where citizens groups, so-called greens, workers and members of “Congress are shut out of the negotiating process, as has been the case with” TPP, she said. The ad would include recent poll results showing “62 percent of voters oppose fast track authority for the” TPP, and a list of groups that have signed on, the email said. The poll, done by the Hart Research Associates and Chesapeake Beach Consulting Jan. 14-18, was commissioned by CWA, the Sierra Club and the U.S. Business Industry Council (http://bit.ly/1n7DjCJ).

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper lauded the White House’s nomination of Vice Admiral Mike Rogers to head the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command (http://1.usa.gov/1a82mFl). Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel had announced the nomination in a news release. “If confirmed, Vice Adm. Rogers will be joined by an exceptionally able Deputy Director and senior civilian leader, Rick Ledgett, whom I congratulate on his appointment today,” Hagel said in a statement (http://1.usa.gov/1fig2Lu). Rogers had “served in numerous leadership and cryptological roles, including the director for intelligence for both the Joint Chiefs of Staff and U.S. Pacific Command,” Clapper said.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) “has never been better poised to effect positive change as it further fuels our nation’s innovation economy,” said PTO Deputy Director Michelle Lee in a speech Thursday. Lee is currently PTO’s acting leader, but is not officially its acting director because President Barack Obama has not yet named a nominee to permanently head the agency following former acting Director Teresa Rea’s departure. Lee noted in her speech at an American Intellectual Property Law Association event in Phoenix that the PTO is committed to “fostering a strong and balanced IP system,” AIPLA said in a news release. PTO released its proposed new rules for patent owners’ regular disclosure of a patent’s real-party-in-interest information in late January. PTO said in the Federal Register it will accept comments on the proposed rules through March 25 (http://1.usa.gov/1n5qjAq).

The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board expects its next report, focusing on the electronic surveillance authorized by Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Section 702, to come out “in the next couple of months,” PCLOB Chairman David Medine said at a George Washington University event Wednesday. “There'll be some challenging issues,” he said. PCLOB released its report and recommendations on phone surveillance last week, the majority of the five-member board judging the practice illegal. Medine is scheduled to testify before the House Judiciary Committee Tuesday at a 10 a.m. hearing in 2141 Rayburn. Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., has asserted his committee’s role over surveillance. “I look forward to hearing the different perspectives of the witnesses next week so that we are fully informed as we move forward with legislative action,” he said in a statement Thursday (http://1.usa.gov/1dQCpVN). PCLOB is still figuring out what its future role might be, Medine said, citing an increase in staffing and eventually the possibility that PCLOB may be able to focus on multiple reports at once. PCLOB now is coordinating with the Department of Homeland Security on a report DHS is developing, according to Medine. He said there are complications in where to put the metadata, saying “having this information makes it a target.” He backs having the phone companies rather than the government possess the metadata, without placing additional data retention mandates on industry. There should be “case-by-case requests” of providers, which already have certain retention mandates, he said. Medine defended the legal and constitutional analysis of the Patriot Act Section 215 report, which some observers and PCLOB members have criticized. Congress instructed such legal focus, he said. Many factors need to be considered when evaluating the programs, Medine said, saying government needs to consider what happens if activities are discovered: “You need the ‘oh my god’ factor.”

The NSA hired its first privacy officer, it said in a news release Wednesday (http://1.usa.gov/1b7IEEM). Rebecca Richards’ full title is the NSA civil liberties and privacy officer. She had worked for the Department of Homeland Security as senior director for privacy compliance. Richards reports directly to NSA Director Keith Alexander, said that agency. He said he expects “Richards will work closely with civil liberties and privacy experts outside of government to bring additional innovative practices to our existing civil liberties and privacy programs.” President Barack Obama announced a desire to hire such an officer during a news conference last summer.

A 10-year extension of a “global patent cross-license agreement” was agreed to by Samsung Electronics and Google, said a Samsung news release Monday (http://bit.ly/1lfMkxO). The agreement gives the companies access to one another’s patent portfolios, it said. The deal “can reduce the potential for litigation and focus instead on innovation,” said Allen Lo, Google’s deputy general counsel for patents.

The NATO Special Operations Headquarters and state agencies in Maryland, New York and West Virginia are among the entities that became National Network and Cyber Awareness Coalition partners during Q4, the Department of Homeland Security said Friday. The Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development, the New York Power Authority and the State of West Virginia were the state entities. Several local governments and organizations also joined: the Chicago Police Department, the city government for Miramar, Fla., the Genessee County Drain Commission in Michigan, the North Smithfield Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency in Rhode Island and the village government for Westmont, Ill.