Understanding the Proposed Online Privacy Bill

The Obama Administration has asked Congress to pass an online privacy law, a set of "baseline" protections that would act as a privacy bill of rights, a significant move designed to settle the continuing digital-privacy debate. But an important factor here that has not been discussed is the timing of the president's call to Congress.

In the past year or so, digital privacy has come to the forefront, as a slew of privacy bills have bubbled up on the Hill; the Federal Trade Commission presented privacy papers along with calls for comment; and the ad industry has taken aggressive steps to implement a self-regulatory program, no doubt to stem the growing legislative sentiments. The Wall Street Journal has been running a series on data tracking, called "What They Know," that has attracted the attention of lawmakers. When the Obama Administration announced three months ago its creation of the Privacy Policy Office to evaluate possible legal measures, it was clear some form of legislation would take shape. But when? And how? Today's proposal, made by Mr. Obama's information-policy adviser, Lawrence Strickling, suggests any law should be "broad and flexible enough to allow consumer-privacy protection and business practices to adapt." It's a smart, open-ended approach, designed to draw both Democratic and Republican backers. But another reason is to ensure that the U.S. can eventually sign data accords with foreign governments, namely the European Union and countries in the Asia-Pacific region. According to insiders in Washington, the U.S. is looking to sign data treaties with both regions fairly soon, which makes getting a Capitol roll call that much more important.