The leaders of the House Intelligence Committee announced changes (PDF) to their cybersecurity information-sharing bill (HR 3523) on Monday evening that were designed to blunt some of the criticism of the bill's potential effects on the privacy of U.S. citizens. The new language omits any reference to intellectual property in the bill's definition of cyberthreat, likely an attempt to quiet comparisons between CISPA and the notorious failed online piracy bills SOPA and PIPA. Privacy and civil rights advocates including the ACLU, the Center for Democracy and Technology and the Electronic Frontier Foundation have planned a week of protests against the legislation, which is expected to reach the House floor in the coming weeks.

The bill expressly bans the government from using cyberthreat information for regulatory purposes, and calls for the intelligence community's inspector general to submit an annual report on how information is used by the government aside from cybersecurity purposes. The changes also require that the Department of Homeland Security receive access to all shared information and clarifies that the legislation doesn't in any way expand the Pentagon or National Security Agency's involvement in cybersecurity. Despite the changes, critics are still arguing the bill's language is too broad and gives the government too much leeway to use information collected from companies for other reasons, most notably for national security purposes. Expect the debate to continue this week as sponsors try to address their concerns; a full fact sheet from the Intelligence Committee is available here (PDF).

Trade Group Wants More Open Data: CQ's Ambreen Ali reports on a new trade group launched Monday that's focused on standardizing government data, a pillar of the open government movement. The Data Transparency Coalition was formed by tech companies and good government groups even as House leaders prepare to consider the DATA Act (HR 2146), which would establish a permanent transparency board and publish data on federal spending online. Coalition members include the Sunlight Foundation, whose executive director Ellen Miller said the formation of the group shows the cultural tide is turning in favor of transparency. Opponents of the DATA Act include universities and other recipients of federal grants that would be subject to additional reporting requirements.

If the description of the DATA Act sounds familiar, that's because it resembles the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006, which was sponsored by then-Sen. Obama and his friend Tom Coburn, R-Okla. That bill also established a website, USASpending.gov, to track federal spending on contracts and grants. The site has experienced repeated delays and bureaucratic resistance in the posting of spending data, prompting Coburn to question why the law hasn't been followed. The Obama administration doubled down on USASpending by rolling out the IT Dashboard, which is supposed to track the government's spending on information technology, but again the site's data has been criticized as incomplete and not overly useful in determining the state of federal technology projects. DATA Act sponsor Darrell Issa, R-Calif., has said his bill will borrow heavily from the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board created to track stimulus spending in 2009.

Napolitano Goes to College: Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano headed West on Monday to deliver remarks on expanding the cybersecurity workforce at San Jose State University, where she met with industry stakeholders, students and faculty. The government's shortage of cybersecurity expertise is one of the most frequently-cited threats to the nation's computer networks, especially since agencies must compete with private sector openings that often offer better compensation and more room for growth. One proposal would give DHS the same hiring authority as the Pentagon to aggressively recruit the needed personnel. Napolitano also spoke at UCLA, where she underscored DHS' commitment to encouraging international trade and travel security. Cyberbullying Event Tonight: Federal Trade Commission Commissioner Julie Brill will join Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler and Common Sense Media founder James Steyer this evening at Sidwell Friends School in Washington to discuss online privacy, cyberbullying and other topics. Legislation to protect children's privacy online has been floated during the current session of Congress, but tech companies are justifiably worried about the challenges of liability and age verification online. FCC Eying Comcast: Netflix CEO Reed Hastings' complaint about Comcast violating net neutrality via its Xfinity app has drawn the FCC's attention, according to a report from the WSJ. Hastings complained on Sunday that video streamed through his Xbox via the Xfinity app doesn't count against his monthly data cap, while video streamed on other apps does. Adding fuel to the fire is the fact the Xfinity app is only available to Comcast cable subscribers, not broadband-only customers, making it another barrier to cable cord-cutting. The FCC told WSJ it "takes seriously any allegations of violations of our open Internet rules," which took effect last November. Street View Fine Not Enough for Google Critics: The New York Times reports privacy advocates are not happy that Google received only a $25,000 fine for obstructing the FCC's investigation into the Street View "Spy-fi" incident. The search giant's Street View cars downloaded payload data from unsecured, private wireless networks, prompting investigation from a number of different national governments. But the FCC's probe hit a wall when the engineer responsible for coding the project invoked the Fifth Amendment. Google claims the data collection was unauthorized, but the Times reports that the engineer in question is maintaining that other people in the company were aware of it. Google has challenged the FCC's characterization of its cooperation in the investigation and may challenge the $25,000 fine.