Recent online industry developments show "little indication" self-regulation of online privacy is working, the director of an electronic privacy watchdog group told a U.S. Senate subcommittee last week.
Marc Rotenberg, director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, told the Senate Subcommittee on Communications that the Online Privacy Protection Act was a good starting point for real Internet privacy protection. The bill could "give consumers in the United States better assurance that their personal information will be protected against misuse and improper disclosure."
The bill is co-sponsored by the subcommittee's chairman, Montana Republican Conrad Burns.
Rotenberg also pressed the full Senate Commerce Committee to push for a privacy agency and support developing "genuine" privacy-enhancing technologies. "Successful development and use of these techniques," Rotenberg testified, "will reduce the need for legislation and ultimately serve the long-term interests of consumers and businesses."
He criticised a recent Federal Trade Commission report opposing Internet privacy legislation, calling it "one of the oddest reports on privacy" a government agency ever produced. He said the report was very nonspecific and did not evaluate any recommendations.
FTC Chairman Robert Pitofsky and three other ranking FTC officials also testified at the subcommittee hearing, as did Dierdre Mulligan, staff director for the Center on Democracy and Technology, and Jill Lesser, America Online's Congressional liaison.
The Online Privacy Protection Act was introduced into the Senate in April.
