The Federal government collects all sorts of statistics on every conceivable topic from unemployment to imports and exports to oil production. These are the types of statistics that, for the most part, have remained off-limits to political interference and as a result are accurate measurements of how our economy is functioning.

There are private sector data collectors too, but these generally supplement, not replace, government statistics. The American Petroleum Institute, for example, collects information on oil and gas production, but the official numbers come from the Energy Information Administration. Imagine a system, however, in which the private sector controlled all the information and could put out any numbers it wanted without fear of oversight or transparency. It's not hard to imagine that many sectors of the economy would suddenly look rosier than they are. That's the kind of world that the telecom giants are trying to create.

As high-speed Internet connections become even more necessary to everything we do (certainly seeing video on the TPM site), the telephone and cable industries have proposed to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that they take a central role in collecting information on, and mapping the deployment of, broadband services through an organization called Connected Nation (nee Connect Kentucky). See an earlier story here.

Connected/Connect is a highly-touted "public-private partnership" that claims to have brought Kentucky into the high-speed Internet age. Their claims have been challenged, and earlier this year the Kentucky government cut off their funding.

Connected/Connect is a perfect example of why "public-private partnerships" should be closely scrutinized. It's sometimes difficult to tell which agenda is being served. One would never know from its Web site or from filings with the FCC, how much of the "private" part of the equation and how much of the "public" is represented.

Let's take a look at the Connect Board of Directors. There are 12 outside directors, eight of which are directly in the orbit of network operators. They are not small players.

• James W. Cicconi - AT&T senior executive vice president-external and legislative affairs
• Steve Largent - CTIA - The Wireless Association president and CEO
• Joseph W. Waz - Comcast senior vice president, external affairs and public policy counsel
• Larry Cohen - Communications Workers of America president. CWA is a subsidiary of the telephone companies in telecom policy.
• Thomas J. Tauke - Verizon executive vice president for public affairs, policy and communication
• Walter B. McCormick - United States Telecom Association president
• Kyle E. McSlarrow - National Cable and Telecommunications Association president
• Grant Seiffert - Telecommunications Industry Association president. (The members are the equipment makers who sell their gear to the telecom industry.)

Also on the board are a couple of executives with Kentucky connections. Doug Robinson is the executive director of the Lexington-based National Association of State Chief Information Officers, and previously held several information technology related jobs in Kentucky state government.

Harry Herington is chairman of NIC, a company that provides Web portal services to states, including the award-winning Kentucky state government Web site. NIC joined Connected Nation as a member in April, and it was recommended then that he also join the Board, according to Nancy Beaton, an NIC spokesman. Their take is that it's good for the e-government business if more people have access to broadband.

Rounding out the board are John Davies, the general manager of the Intel World Ahead program and Wendy Lazarus, founder and co-president of The Children's Partnership. The partnership, among other programs, works to bring the benefits of technology to children through its Techpolicybank program. Connect is looking for more non-commercial representatives.

With that background, take a look at Connect's argument to the FCC. The Connect argument is that the Commission shouldn't screw up all the "progress" that "public-private partnerships" have made in collecting information. That data would be much better than any collected by the FCC, Connect argued in its filing.

Rather than have the Commission collect broadband information, the FCC should be a repository for data that others, these public-private partnerships, presumably like Connect, collect, the information. Connect even tries to make a strength out of its greatest weakness - that no companies are required to give it any information. As a result, "confidentiality of company data is maintained," and as a result "service providers to be more willing to collaborate with us," Connect said. Of course, there's no verification for any gaps in data, and the information stays in private hands, not in public ones for all to use.

But the "public" part of the equation had other ideas. The Kentucky Public Service Commission told the FCC that, "As often recognized by public policy makers across the country, specific private business interests are not always consistent, or even compatible, with broader public interests."

The American Public Power Association (APPA), led by several of its members from Kentucky, pointed out that the privatized-data model used by Connect because there is no government oversight or enforcement, and that the information is receives is "shielded from public review or legal challenge." Noting that government agencies will have policies influenced by the data collected, APPA noted that there is "always the risk that if the data-gathering and data-synthesizing function is performed by a private non-profit entity populated by persons with industry connections and/or funded in significant part by industry, its data output may be skewed, consciously or unconsciously, in the direction of supporting the interests of those that financially support or have influence with that entity."

That's the key. The FCC proposes to collect and to distribute information, and part of the package is the FCC's authority to compel companies to report information, to have oversight over the program and to disseminate that data to the public. Turning it over to private hands, particularly those with an industry-led agenda, would be a big mistake. If the companies want to hide something, they could. If they deploy the best services to the "best" neighborhoods, they could, without any policymakers finding out. If they wanted to claim more services in rural areas than are actually there, they could.

That's the weakness of the system now that Connect Kentucky/Connected Nation runs. Under the guise of "confidentiality," just about anything could be reported. Services of other companies, like municipal utilities, could be left out completely. The resort would be a distorted picture of a crucial service.

The Senate is scheduled to take up legislation (S 3297) soon that will have a data-mapping bill wrapped into it. That legislation, while providing more conditions and protections on data collection, still has elements of the Connect model in it as well as the loophole of protecting "confidential and proprietary" information. It will probably be hard to take out the offending language, or to remove that bill from the package, but those voting should read the comments of concerned agencies and businesses carefully before voting.