There's an online privacy technology study coming from Washington thanks to the House Science Committee last week, but the idea is getting a yawn from at least one privacy rights watcher.
"We have not yet decided it is time to have meaningful privacy legislation in the United States," says Fordham University law professor Joel Reidenberg to Wired. With some ten similar federal studies by his count, Reidenberg says this is just "all well-worn ground."
Last week, an amendment to a House Science Committee bill marked part of the multi-billion dollar tech research fund for online privacy technologies, but the issues around the amendment - especially a call to study privacy laws in other countries - have been well addressed, including in a report which came out of the Internet Content Summit over the weekend.
And Wired says the most advanced privacy-enabling technology standard, the Platform for Privacy Preferences, has been in development for over two years.
Reidenberg tells the magazine that one huge issue with a federal privacy agency has been its cost, but that's since become almost moot since more money's been spent studying privacy than would have been required to set up and run the agency.
