[LINK] New US internet privacy legislation in development

[Jan Whitaker]

March 13, 2009, 6:17 pm

A Call to Legislate Internet Privacy

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/13/a-call-to-legislate-internet-privacy/

By <http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/author/saul-hansell/>Saul Hansell

The debate on Internet privacy has begun in Congress.

I had a chance to sit down recently with 
Representative Rick Boucher, the long-serving 
Virginia Democrat, who has just replaced Ed 
Markey, the Democrat from Massachusetts, as the 
chairman of the House Subcommittee looking after 
telecommunications, technology and the Internet. 
Mr. Boucher is widely regarded as one of the most 
technologically savvy members of Congress.

As he ticked off his top priorities for his 
panel, most involved the pressing demands of 
telecommunications regulation. There is a law 
governing how local TV stations are carried on 
satellite broadcasters that needs to be renewed. 
There is the Universal Service Fund, which takes 
money from most telephone customers to pay for 
rural service to be improved. And there is the 
conversion to digital television and the 
investments in rural broadband to be supervised.

But high on his list is a topic that is very much 
under his discretion: passing a bill to regulate 
the privacy of Internet users.

“Internet users should be able to know what 
information is collected about them and have the 
opportunity to opt out,” he said.

While he hasn’t written the bill yet, Mr. Boucher 
said that he, working with Representative Cliff 
Stearns, the Florida Republican who is the 
ranking minority member on the subcommittee, 
wants to require Web sites to disclose how they 
collect and use data, and give users the option 
to opt out of any data collection. That’s not a 
big change from what happens now, at least on most big sites.

But in what could be a big change from current 
practice, Mr. Boucher wants sites to get explicit 
permission from users ­ an “opt in” ­ if they are 
going to share information with other companies.

“I think that strikes the right balance,” he 
said. “Web site operators are very concerned that 
if they have an opt-in regime for the internal 
marketing of the Web site themselves it would be 
very disruptive. The default position of most 
Internet users will be not to check any boxes at 
all. It is a very different matter if the site 
takes the information and sells it to gain revenue.”

I spoke to Mr. Boucher on the day that Google 
announced its new 
<http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/12/a-guide-to-googles-new-privacy-controls/>plan 
to track data about customers for advertising. 
And I asked him about such behavioral targeting, 
which presents an ad based on what you did on other sites.

“That would clearly need an opt in,” he said.

If that’s how a final law is written, it would 
significantly disrupt a fair number of 
advertising businesses. And lobbyists for 
Internet companies and trade groups told me they 
are preparing to “educate” Mr. Boucher on the benefits of targeted ads.

Mr. Boucher told me that he is convinced that 
privacy legislation will actually be good for Internet companies.

“Our goal is to enhance user confidence in the 
online experience,” he said. “Web sites will 
understand that enhancing confidence will improve their business.”

Some companies, led by Microsoft, have called for 
comprehensive privacy laws, as Europe has. Mr. 
Boucher said he just wants to write rules for the 
Internet. Certain other areas, such as medical 
and financial records, already have existing privacy laws.

Of course, there is a very long way to go between 
a congressman saying he will introduce a bill and 
the President signing it into law. And other key 
House and Senate leaders who would be involved in 
any privacy legislation have yet to articulate 
clear points of view on the subject. Nor has the 
Obama administration said anything publicly 
whether it wants any new privacy laws.

But there are certainly signs that the topic is 
of interest. The stimulus bill attached tough new 
privacy controls to the electronic medical 
records provisions. And Jon Leibowitz, whom the 
president appointed to head the Federal Trade 
Commission, is a long-time privacy advocate.

But even if a privacy bill doesn’t make it all 
the way to the president’s desk, the fact the 
subject is being considered is already 
encouraging Internet companies and trade groups 
to come up with tighter standards for protecting 
data used for advertising in the hope that they 
can persuade Congress that a new law isn’t needed.



Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com

Our truest response to the irrationality of the 
world is to paint or sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

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