Hire a Veteran Day

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According to SHRM, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports, “In 2020, 18.5 million men and women were veterans, accounting for about 7 percent of the civilian, noninstitutionalized population ages 18 and older. ZipRecruiter and the Call of Duty Endowment1 reports that veterans are 15.6 percent more likely than non-veterans job seekers to be underemployed.

Veterans can help raise a company’s workforce to the next level in many areas, including: Leadership and teamwork. Military service creates individuals who work to earn the respect of their peers and understand how to bring people together to pursue strategic, common goals. Problem-solving and decision-making.

According to Hire a Veteran Day Founder Dan Caporale, “The best way to honor a veteran is to hire one.”

An Orion Talent’s 2018 Veteran Hiring Survey found that candidates with military experience are more likely to be hired, more likely to accept a job offer, and more likely to stay at the company for a longer period of time than those without a military background.

Learn more about how to build a business case for hiring veterans and how to implement a veteran’s hiring initiative on the SHRM website at https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/toolkits/pages/militaryreadyemployer.aspx.

E&C Announces Subcommittee Markup of Bipartisan, Bicameral Privacy Legislation & Seven Other Bills

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Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Ranking Member Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Consumer Protection and Commerce Subcommittee Chair Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), and Subcommittee Ranking Member Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) announced today that the Consumer Protection and Commerce Subcommittee will hold a markup on Thursday, June 23, at 10:30 a.m. (EDT) in the John D. Dingell Room, 2123 of the Rayburn House Office Building.

“This week, we will take another major step in putting people back in control of their data and strengthening our nation’s privacy and data security protections by marking up the bipartisan American Data Privacy and Protection Act,” Pallone, Rodgers, Schakowsky, and Bilirakis said. “We continue to welcome and encourage input as we begin this next step in the regular order process. The Subcommittee will also consider seven other bills, including legislation to protect children from dangerous products, prevent unwanted recording by smart devices, and defend horses from inhumane practices. We look forward to working with Committee members on both sides of the aisle to advance these important bills.”   

 The Subcommittee will consider the following bills:

 H.R. 8152, the “American Data Privacy and Protection Act,” which was formally introduced in the House today by Pallone, Rodgers, Schakowsky, and Bilirakis. 

 H.R. 3355, the “Save America’s Forgotten Equines Act of 2021” or the “SAFE Act,” which was introduced by Reps. Schakowsky and Vern Buchanan (R-FL).

 H.R. 3962, the “Securing and Enabling Commerce Using Remote and Electronic Notarization Act of 2021,” which was introduced by Reps. Madeleine Dean (D-PA), Kelly Armstrong (R-ND), and 32 original bipartisan cosponsors.

 H.R. 4081, the “Informing Consumers About Smart Devices Act,” which was introduced by Reps. John Curtis (R-UT) and Seth Moulton (D-MA). 

 H.R.4551, the, “Reporting Attacks from Nations Selected for Oversight and Monitoring Web Attacks and Ransomware from Enemies Act” or the “RANSOMWARE Act,” which was introduced by Rep. Bilirakis.

 H.R. 5313, “Reese’s Law,” which was introduced by Reps. Robin Kelly (D-IL), Jodey Arrington (R-TX), and Ted Lieu (D-CA).

 H.R. 5441, the “Prevent All Soring Tactics Act of 2021” or the “PAST Act,” which was introduced by Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) and 212 other original bipartisan cosponsors.

 H.R. 6290, the “Manufacturing.gov Act,” which was introduced by Reps. Paul Tonko (D-NY), Cindy Axne (D-IA), and Fred Upton (R-MI).

This will be a hybrid markup that includes both in person and remote member attendance via Cisco Webex video conferencing. Members of the public may view the markup via live webcast accessible on the Energy and Commerce Committee’s website. Please note the webcast will not be available until the markup begins.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

Our language is included under Sec. 101 (b) (4) as a permissible service

1              (4) To prevent, detect, protect against, or re-

2             spond to a security incident, or fulfill a product or

3             service warranty. For purposes of this paragraph,

4             security is defined as network security as well as in-

5 t           trusion, medical alerts, fire alarms, and access con-

6             trol security.

Latest Update on Pending Privacy Legislation, June 8th

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Proposed Data Privacy Bill Stands a Shot at Becoming First Comprehensive Federal Privacy Law

A discussion draft of a comprehensive data privacy bill was released last Friday by a bipartisan group of legislators in the House and Senate. Consumer rights advocates say the proposed compromise legislation is the biggest step to date toward granting individuals meaningful privacy protections.

The draft bill, currently known as the American Data Privacy and Protection Act (the “Data Privacy Act”), would allow users to opt out of target advertisements and to sue Internet companies that improperly sell their data. It is sponsored by US Reps Frank Pallone, Jr (D-NJ) and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), who are Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and US Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. However, insiders say the legislation faces an uphill battle without the support of Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), who is chair of the Senate Commerce Committee. Cantwell is believed to support more liberal priorities for online user rights.

BLOOSTONLAW TELECOM UPDATE 4 June 8, 2022

“This bipartisan and bicameral effort to produce a comprehensive data privacy framework has been years in the making, and the release of this discussion draft represents a critical milestone,” Pallone, Rodgers, and Wicker said. “In the coming weeks, we will be working with our colleagues on both sides of the aisle to build support and finalize this standard to give Americans more control over their personal data. We welcome and encourage all of our colleagues to join us in this effort to enable meaningful privacy protections for Americans and provide businesses with operational certainty. This landmark agreement represents the sum of years of good faith efforts by us, other Members, and numerous stakeholders as we work together to provide American consumers with comprehensive data privacy protections.”

As summarized by a House Energy and Commerce Committee press release, the Data Privacy Act would:

  • Establish a strong national framework to protect consumer data privacy and security;
  • Grant broad protections for Americans against the discriminatory use of their data;
  • Require covered entities to minimize on the front end, individuals’ data they need to collect, process, and transfer so that the use of consumer data is limited to what is reasonably necessary, proportionate, and limited for specific products and services;
  • Require covered entities to comply with loyalty duties with respect to specific practices while ensuring consumers don’t have to pay for privacy;
  • Require covered entities to allow consumers to turn off targeted advertisements;
  • Provide enhanced data protections for children and minors, including what they might agree to with or without parental approval;
  • Establish regulatory parity across the internet ecosystem; and
  • Promote innovation and preserve the opportunity for start-ups and small businesses to grow and compete.

The legislation would give individual users new rights to access, correct and delete their digital data, and companies would be responsible for informing third parties to make changes to the data of users that have submitted a verified request. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) would be required to maintain a public registry of data brokers and create a mechanism of users to opt out of targeted advertisements and other data sharing practices. Individuals would be permitted to sue companies, but only after a four-year waiting period after the legislation is enacted. They would also need to notify state and federal officials before proceeding, and they could not pursue their legal action of a government prosecutor takes up their case.

Proposed exceptions in the current draft (at Section 209) would generally allow collection, processing or transfer of covered data for narrowly-tailored purposes such as completing transactions, when data is collected to perform system maintenance, diagnostics or when addressing security incidents, among other things. The draft bill also provides exemptions for small entities that earned gross annual revenues of $41 million or less for the prior three years, that did not collect or process the covered data of 100,000 individuals in a year (except for processing payments and promptly deleting covered data for requested products/services) and that did not derive more than half their revenue from transferring covered data. These smaller entities may choose to delete, rather than correct, and individual’s covered data.

The Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT), a nonprofit research group that receives funding from tech companies such as Apple and Google, issued the following statement upon the release of the proposal:

“This draft shows that there is a bipartisan path forward on long-overdue legislation to protect consumers’ privacy. Americans want and desperately need legislation to protect their personal data and promote trust in the online world. While it’s not perfect, the draft is a hopeful first step. We urge Congress to move forward with the legislative process and pass legislation by the end of this year.”

 

Proposed Privacy Legislation May Impact Monitoring Companies

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The United States House of Representatives has just introduced a privacy bill that has been endorsed by the Chairman and Ranking Republican of the Energy and Commerce Committee and the Ranking Republican of the Senate Commerce Committee.

The bill establishes rules for when and how data can be shared. We would also point out that the bill does require explicit consent from your customers to share information and must report to them when you do. On P. 17 there is a discussion of Geolocation services which might impact TMA members.

We think the alarm monitoring industry would be exempt based upon the exemptions on P. 39 items (1), (3), & (6), but we are providing a definition of alarm monitoring and writing clarifying language specific to alarm monitoring in item (3).

Update:

House leaders swipe at Chamber over privacy bill letter

With a key House panel set to hold a hearing on a bipartisan, bicameral consumer data privacy proposal next week, Republicans were upset to see the U.S. Chamber of Commerce already bashing the bill.

The group was circulating a draft letter saying the American Data Privacy and Protection Act “is unworkable and should be rejected,” CNBC reported on Thursday.

The influential business group complains the proposal doesn’t go far enough in preempting state laws while also creating a “private right of action” that would allow individuals to sue companies if they believe their data is being misused.

“A national privacy law should be a true national standard but the bill’s preemption language carves out fifteen different state laws including those in California and Illinois,” the group wrote. “This legislation would create a new national patchwork of privacy laws.”

The draft proposal would give consumers more control over their personal data, including limiting information that can be collected on the front end, supporters say.

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (Wash.), top Republican on the Energy and Commerce Committee, was especially unhappy over the Chamber letter.

“It is disappointing to see the Chamber – who has urgently called for a national privacy framework for years – suddenly change their tune like this,” Sean Kelly,CMR’s spokesperson, said in a statement.

“They are not being constructive by asking Congress to abandon ongoing bipartisan, bicameral efforts on a federal privacy standard,” said This draft bill is going through the regular order process, and includes policies that have been public and received comment in one form or another for several years. We are continuing to welcome and encourage stakeholder feedback, especially from those who still believe a federal data privacy standard is urgently needed.”

This is just the last flare-up between the Chamber and Republicans on the Hill. The big business lobby, once an ally to Republicans, has faced increased skepticism from GOP lawmakers, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

House Energy and Commerce’s Consumer Protection and Commerce subcommittee has a hearing set for Tuesday on this issue, so we’ll definitely hear a lot more on this proposal.

TMA Standards Committee to Host Town Halls on TMA-AVS-01

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TMA’s proposed ANSI standard, TMA-AVS-01 – Alarm Verification Standard Preliminary Technical Review period is now closed. The next step in the ANSI standards development process is the 60-day public comment period. We currently anticipate this will begin Mid-July.

In line with this formal comment period, TMA’s Standards Committee has scheduled five, stand-alone Virtual Town Hall question and answer forums for TMA members and other stakeholders. Security, monitoring, and public safety practitioners are encouraged to attend one or more of these sessions to share comments, ask questions, and exchange dialogue with the Standards Committee and their peers.

TMA-AVS-01 – Alarm Validation Standard

Register to attend one or more of the following TMA Virtual Town Hall Meetings (Each begins at 1:00PM/ET):

Homeland Security Department Warns of More Mass Casualty Violence

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Homeland Security warns of individuals using high-profile events to justify violence against ideological opponents, public gatherings, schools and more

The Department of Homeland Security issued a bulletin Tuesday warning of a “heightened threat environment” over the next several months as they monitor both risks of domestic terrorism and foreign adversaries looking to sow discord within the U.S. to promote acts of violence.

“The United States remains in a heightened threat environment, as noted in the previous Bulletin, and several recent attacks have highlighted the dynamic and complex nature of the threat environment,” DHS said in a new bulletin from the National Terrorism Advisory System.

“In the coming months, we expect the threat environment to become more dynamic as several high-profile events could be exploited to justify acts of violence against a range of possible targets,” DHS said.

The bulletin listed potential targets to include “public gatherings, faith-based institutions, schools, racial and religious minorities, government facilities and personnel, U.S. critical infrastructure, the media, and perceived ideological opponents.”

The department stressed that “foreign adversaries-including terrorist organizations and nation state adversaries-also remain intent on exploiting the threat environment to promote or inspire violence, sow discord, or undermine U.S. democratic institutions.”

“We continue to assess that the primary threat of mass casualty violence in the United States stems from lone offenders and small groups motivated by a range of ideological beliefs and/or personal grievances,” the bulletin said.

DHS pointed to several recent high-profile events including the mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, where the suspect in the grocery store attack allegedly claimed that he was motivated by racist, anti-Black, and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. The department said it is monitoring online forums following the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, that have been encouraging copycat attacks.

Oneida County NY ECC, TMA’s 108th ASAP-to-PSAP Site

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The Oneida County NY Department of Emergency Communications 9-1-1 Center became the 108th Emergency Communications Center in the United States and the 7th agency in the state of New York to implement the Automated Secure Alarm Protocol (ASAP). Oneida County went live on Monday, May 16, 2022, and Tuesday, May 17, 2022 with Vector Security, Rapid Response Monitoring, Guardian Protection, Security Central, Stanley Security, Tyco (Johnson Controls), Protection One, Amherst Alarm, Doyle Security, National Monitoring Center, Affiliated Monitoring, Brinks Home Security, Vivint, Securitas, and ADT. 

Three Minnesota ECCs Go Live with ASAP-to-PSAP

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The City of Bloomington MN, Dakota County MN, and Rice-Steele Counties MN respectively became the 105th, 106th, and 107th Emergency Communications Centers in the United States and the 3rd, 4th and 5th agencies in the state of Minnesota to implement the Automated Secure Alarm Protocol (ASAP-to-PSAP).

The City of Bloomington went live on Tuesday, May 3, 2022, Dakota County went live on Wednesday, May 4, 2022, and Rice-Steele Counties went live on Thursday, May 5, 2022. Each PSAP went live with Vector Security, Rapid Response Monitoring, Guardian Protection, Security Central, Quick Response, Stanley Security, United Central Control, Tyco (Johnson Controls), Protection One, Brinks, Affiliated Monitoring, Vivint, National Monitoring Center, and ADT.

TMA and Security Systems News Announce Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Leadership Award

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The Monitoring Association (TMA) and Security Systems News have partnered to create a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Leadership Award with the goal of promoting and fostering a more inclusive workforce throughout the security industry.

Today’s business world requires that businesses create, foster, and encourage diversity and inclusion in the workplace to be successful. Doing so stimulates innovation; drives better decisions; makes teams more agile; and results in better business outcomes for employees and customers. These improvements result in higher levels of employee engagement and better financial performance.

The idea for the “TMA/SSN Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Leadership Award” emerged from a small working group comprised of TMA CEO Celia T. Besore; TMA President-Elect Steve Butkovich, SSN Editor Paul Ragusa, and staff in 2021. The award will be given to TMA members who demonstrate a commitment to DEI policies and programs across their organization.

“TMA, together with Security Systems News, seeks to be an agent of change and to raise awareness of the significance and the value of DEI initiatives within the security business sector. We’re proud to introduce this new award as a means to bring this critical issue to the forefront, to inform, and to empower companies to embrace and embed these core principles,” stated Celia T. Besore, CEO, TMA.

“With workforce development one of key topics within security today, the focus and conversation has turned to building a strong company culture that attracts quality candidates and inspires them to want to stay and grow in your company,” added Paul Ragusa, editor, Security Systems News. “Creating an environment that is inclusive, open and based on a strong DEI framework is key to successfully retaining top talent, and this new award was created to recognize companies that are leaders in this area.”

The efforts and achievements must have been demonstrated through specific work with other individuals or groups, or through a specific product, initiative, innovative programs, or activities that have a visible, tangible, or measurable impact on the perception of, attitude toward, and respect for a truly inclusive environment, where individuals are valued for their talent and able to reach their full potential.

Each nominee will be asked to deploy the TMA/SSN DEI Employee Assessment Survey to their employees. The web-based assessment tool consists of approximately 40 questions covering eight facets of DEI practice within your organization. (Companies will receive only a summary report without individual responses.)

Each nominee will also be required to submit one to four “Shared Success Examples” of how their organization implements DEI-related activities in the following areas of focus, such as:

  • Workforce Diversity
  • Multicultural Outreach
  • Community Involvement

The TMA/SSN DEI Leadership Award aims to:

  • Raise industry awareness of the importance and value of being a diverse and inclusive industry.
  • Recognize TMA member organizations who have developed innovative initiatives to foster DEI efforts within their organization.
  • Initiatives may include new hiring policies; practices to create and retain diverse candidate pools; best practices for facilitating difficult dialogue; and how to create an effective diversity program within your organization.
  • Inspire business strategies and industry best practices that reach out to diverse populations.
  • Through analysis and sharing of the information obtained from the TMA/SSN DEI Employee Assessment Survey, organizations across the industry can gain valuable insights into the development or improvement of their own DEI policies and programs.

Companies interested in applying for the award, please click here to begin the nomination process.

Preliminary Technical Review Period Opens for TMA-AVS01 Standard

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The Preliminary Technical Review period is now open for the TMA-AVS01 Alarm Validation Standard. The purpose of this optional review process is to allow interested stakeholders to provide feedback prior to the commencement of the official ANSI public comment period.

 

The TMA-AVS-01 committee will review all preliminary comments for possible inclusion in the document published for review during the ANSI public comment period.

 

All comments must be received through the TMA portal no later than 8:00 PM, June 17, 2022. Access the TMA online comment form at http://tma.us/avs01commentform

 

We are planning a webinar on or about May 25th to answer questions. Responders are encouraged to submit comments as early as possible.

 

After the committee has prepared a final draft document, TMA will submit to ANSI, with the desire to initiate the 60-day ANSI Public Comment process.

 

If you were unable to be in attendance for the AVS-01 Webinar on May 2, 2022, you can view a recording at https://vimeo.com/705870823/2d66afe899

 

If you have any questions or comments, please contact Bryan Ginn at bginn@tma.us.