Good morning! Welcome to our Technology Executive Briefing.

Privacy Groups Pan Senate Cybersecurity Bills: Tim Starks reports in CQ Weekly that the debate over cybersecurity legislation in Congress has shifted away from concerns about handing the president a "kill switch" for the Web. Since emergency powers have been largely removed from the bills currently in front of Congress, privacy advocates are instead worried about measures intended to promote the sharing of information on threats between private firms and the government. Groups including the ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation are raising flags about the various bills, arguing they do little to address privacy and civil liberties.

On the Senate side, the privacy groups favor the comprehensive bill (S 2105) offered by Joe Lieberman,  I-Conn.; Susan Collins, R-Maine; and Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., that would task the Department of Homeland Security with implementing new security standards on the private networks deemed most crucial to national security. The prospect of new security regulations has drawn stiff opposition from industry, and prompted chamber Republicans to offer an alternative bill (S 2151) without any new regulations. The GOP bill would rely on the National Security Agency and other Pentagon agencies to serve as information-sharing hubs, drawing concern from privacy hawks.

The various House bills have focused primarily on information sharing with less emphasis on new security regulations, but privacy hawks prefer the offering (HR 3674) from House Homeland Security Cybersecurity panel Chairman Dan Lungren, R-Calif., over legislation from House Select Intelligence Chairman Mike Rogers R-Mich., (HR 3523). The Rogers bill doesn't define what kind of information can be shared with the government or place many limits on how it can be used.

Fox in the Cyber Henhouse? CQ's John Donnelly noted last week that Northrop Grumman authored a report issued by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission on the growing cybersecurity threat from China against the nation's computers. The report doesn't mention Northrop Grumman's role as one of the top cybersecurity contractors to the government, which Donnelly highlights in CQ Weekly. A company spokesman told CQ the report speaks for itself. Political Polling Moves to the Web: Ambreen Ali reports in CQ Weekly that phone polls, long the lifeblood of political polling, are on their way out in favor of Web metrics. The popularity of a candidate's name as a search term or the number of followers they have on Facebook and Twitter have become crucial to determining who has momentum heading into an election. One new site joining the crowded field is Whistlestop, which ranks candidates by their social media buzz. Co-founder Alexander Benard said the goal is to make politics fun and social for young people by turning it into a horse race. Viral Video Adds Edge to Campaign to Catch Kony: A viral video posted to YouTube last week has added urgency to calls for the United States to invest more in its search for Central African warlord Joseph Kony. CQ's John Donnelly reports that Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., is using the recent worldwide scrutiny on Kony to press the Pentagon to give U.S. Africa Command the surveillance resources it needs to track him down. President Obama told Congress last October that he had authorized sending 100 military personnel to Africa to help get Kony, but the chief of U.S. Africa Command told lawmakers earlier this month that he needs spy planes to accomplish the mission, in testimony that went largely unnoticed at the time. ICYMI —  White House Names HHS Official CTO: President Obama appointed Todd Park assistant to the president and U.S. chief technology officer. Park had served as head of technology in the Department of Health and Human Services since 2009, and will become the nation's second CTO after Aneesh Chopra left office last month. Chopra has since returned to The Advisory Board and is reportedly weighing a campaign for lieutenant governor in Virginia. Park is considered a leading expert on the use of technology in the health care industry. He joined HHS after helping found Athenahealth, which manufactures health care management software, in 1997.