This from today's ACM TechNews sounds a lot like the conspiracy theory recently dismissed here.
-- rec --
Washington Post
The
White House is proposing to soften a long-existing prohibition on
tracking how users peruse U.S. government Web sites with cookies and
other methods, inciting suspicion among privacy advocates. The U.S.
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has proposed replacing a ban on
using cookies and other technologies on government sites and replacing
it with new standards. Supporters of the proposal say social networking
and other services have transformed the way users share knowledge, and
White House officials say those services can be used to enhance
transparency and public participation in the government. Some privacy
advocates say the change represents a fundamental and inexplicable
shift in federal policy. The American Civil Liberties Union's Michael
Macleod-Ball says the proposal could "allow the mass collection of
personal information of every user of a federal government Web site."
Even those in favor of revising the policy question whether the Obama
administration is pursuing these changes at the behest of private
companies, as the sector's clout in Washington has expanded
significantly. The Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Electronic
Privacy Information Center cite the language of a February contract
with Google, in which a government agency specifically exempted the
company so that it could access Google's YouTube site. Electronic
Frontier Foundation legal advocate Cindy Cohn calls the agreement
troubling. "It appears that these companies are forcing the government
to lower the privacy protections that the government had promised the
American people," Cohn says. "The government should be requiring
companies to raise the level of privacy protection if they want
government contracts."
From "U.S. Web-Tracking Plan Stirs Privacy Fears"
Washington Post (08/11/09) P. A2; Hsu, Spencer S.; Kang, Cecilia
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