House privacy group to meet with privacy advocates, online ad rep

Members of Congress will meet with privacy advocates, a privacy researcher and an online advertising industry representative to talk about digital privacy on Oct 23.

The meeting will be the second of ten meetings about online privacy held by the House Commerce Committee's Bipartisan Privacy Working Group, led by Reps. Peter Welch (D-VT) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN). The meeting will include Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, Susan Grant, director of consumer protection at the Consumer Federation of America, Mercatus Center Senior Researcher Adam Theirer and Rachel Thomas, vice president of government affairs at the Direct Marketing Association, which represents online advertisers. Theirer said he is going to discuss with the working group members “the benefits of data collection for the information economy and the provision of digital services.” Chester and Grant have both been vocal and critical members of stakeholder privacy efforts, including the recently-concluded Department of Commerce initiative to improve transparency around mobile data collection.