Deputy CTO's Buzz Contacts Set Off FOIA Request

Today is "Better Know Your Social Media Settings" on the blog, it seems.

Big Government, the flagship site of Andrew Breitbart's media operation, recently concluded on its anonymous Capitol Confidential blog that the Google Buzz contacts of Deputy U.S. CTO Andrew McLaughlin leaned heavily towards Google employees. "It includes a treasure trove of movers and shakers in high-tech, Internet public policy, and venture capital circles," reads the blog. McLaughlin himself was the head of Global Public Policy at Google before moving to his post in the Office of Science and Technology Policy. McLaughlin's official title in the Obama administration is Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Internet Policy.

McLaughlin's Google Buzz contacts drew attention in large part because McLaughlin himself complained about the settings on Google Buzz that exposed details of who users were in contact with. Part of the context, then, is that McLaughlin is complaining about the privacy settings of his former employer which exposes his contact with some of his former colleagues while his new position puts him in a position of advising the White House about Internet policy, which includes the rights and privacies of consumers on the web.

McLaughlin's exposed contacts are adding fuel to the argument made in some circles that the Obama administration is too closely tied to Google, at the same time that the company is increasingly taking a public role -- not the least in its head-to-head conflict with China over the filtering of Google.cn. The Register's (UK) Andrew Orlowski writes, "some of the Oompa Loompas don't seem to realise they no longer work for the company." That said, criticisms of McLaughlin's contacts with Google arguably tend to misstate his role in the shaping of government technology policy. OSTP functions as an advisor to the White House on tech matters, but it is not, say, a hands-on policy enforcer like the Federal Trade Commission. Adding context is the fact that current Google CEO Eric Schimdt is an Obama advisor who is also one of almost two dozen members of PCAST, the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

The group Consumer Watchdog has filed a Freedom of Information Act request to retrieve McLaughlin's emails. "The appointment was troubling when it was announced, but signs that McLaughlin is continuing a cozy relationship with his former employer while serving in the top White House Internet policy job are even more disconcerting,” said a spokesperson.

Some personal disclosure is in order. My name happens to be among those featured in Big Government's list of McLaughlin's Buzz contacts. (Editor Micah Sifry's is among those there as well.)

But that inclusion points to the risks of drawing conclusions from some social media "data." McLaughlin once worked on the same congressional committee on which which I later worked. According to my own email archives, we've emailed fewer than a dozen times over the last five years, most recently in the form of one and two-line emails in the course of attempting to set up an interview for an article I have coming out this summer. If I'm among McLaughlin's Google Buzz contacts, it doesn't take much to get there.