The questions about the initiative's privacy policies also apply to its role in surveying government networks, says Jim Lewis, a former foreign service official and director of the Technology and Public Policy Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

FORBES: Bush's Double-Edged Cyber-Security Plan

Rob Atkinson is founder and President of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation and Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program.

FORBES: Strengthening U.S. Clean Energy Competitiveness