Advisory Committee on Online Access and Security -- Nomination, P004807

Pursuant to the notice published by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on December 21, we the undersigned formally nominate Andrew Shen, Policy Analyst at the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), to the FTC Advisory Committee on Online Access and Security.

We affirm that:

Andrew Shen would be a valuable addition to the Advisory Committee both due to his background as a consumer advocate and expertise on online privacy.

Through his work at EPIC, Andrew Shen has vigilantly supported and protected the public interest in striving for adequate online and offline privacy protection for all individuals. His affiliation with a public interest research center such as EPIC will provide an unbiased and objective point of view on online access and security since the organization receives no funding from companies that beholden EPIC to take any predetermined positions on online access and security. Furthermore, while it is for the agency to determine the appropriate parties to participate in the workshop, it is our view that the concerns of the public in privacy matters must be given top priority in the Advisory Committee.

Mr. Shen has also pursued many projects and lent his expertise on many matters surrounding online privacy. This past fall, he served as a panelist and submitted a series of comments for the FTC Public Workshop on Online-Profiling. He was also the principal author of the TransAtlantic Consumer Dialogue's (TACD) comments on the Department of Commerce's November 15 draft of the "Safe Harbor Principles." As with the Safe Harbor comments, any recommendations made by the Advisory Committee will have to take into account the international dimension of online access and security. Just recently, he finished work as one of the primary researchers behind EPIC's third survey of the status of online privacy protection, Surfer Beware III : Privacy Policies without Privacy Protection.

For the reasons above, we nominate Andrew Shen as a member of the FTC Advisory Committee on Online Access and Security.

Sincerely,

Jeff Chester,
Executive Director
Center for Media Education

Coralee Whitcomb,
President
Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility

Marc Rotenberg,
Executive Director
Electronic Privacy Information Center

Jason Catlett,
President
Junkbusters, Inc.

Evan Hendricks,
Editor/Publisher
Privacy Times

Ed Mierzwinski,
Consumer Program Director
U.S. Public Interest Research Group