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Reps. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) and Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), the
Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Energy and Commerce's
Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet,
released their draft bill to ensure the privacy of information
about individuals both on the Internet and offline on May 3, 2010.
Committee staff indicated the draft bill will become the subject of
ongoing discussions with numerous stakeholders as the two members
seek to refine and improve the bill. Comments will be wrapped-up by
Friday, June 4, 2010.
The members' aim with the legislation is to encourage
greater levels of electronic commerce by providing to Internet
users the assurance that their experience online will be more
secure.
According to a summary issued by the members, the draft bill
contains a number of important provisions to change current law,
including:
New disclosure of privacy practices: Any
company collecting a user's "personally identifiable
information" must conspicuously display a "clearly
written, understandable privacy policy that explains how
information about individuals is collected, used, and
disclosed."
Changes to collection and use of information:
Currently, companies may collect information about users from the
Internet unless an individual affirmatively opts out of that
collection at the outset. Opt-out consent also applies when a Web
site relies upon services delivered by another party to effectuate
a first-party transaction such as the serving of ads on that Web
site.
Under the proposal, companies will instead need a user's
express opt-in consent to knowingly collect sensitive information
about them, including such sensitive information relating to a
user's medical records, financial accounts, Social Security
Number, government-issued identification, and precise geographic
location information.
New disclosure of information to unaffiliated
parties: The proposal addresses concerns about the
practice of third-party advertisers who collect information about
users and then build a profile and target ads based on that
profile. The draft would create an exception to the opt-in consent
requirement for third-party information sharing by applying
"opt-out consent" to the sharing of an individual's
information with third-party advertisers' network. The bill
would require companies to provide a "clear, easy-to-find link
to a Web page for the ad network" that allows a user to edit
his or her profile, and if he so chooses, to opt out of having a
profile created, provided that the ad network does not share the
user's information with anyone else.
FTC implementation and enforcement: The FTC
would adopt rules to implement and enforce the measure. States also
may enforce the FTC's rules through state attorneys general or
state consumer protection agencies.
With the issue of Internet privacy cropping up in the news on a
regular basis, Reps. Boucher and Stearns have responded and put up
a draft that they hope to refine and improve through conversations
with a wide range of stakeholders. The time is now for interested
parties to begin working with the members and committee staff to
address any specific concerns they have with the draft.
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