Rep Blackburn: Privacy Self-Regulations a Must

Rep Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) told the Telecommunications Industry Association convention that they were going to have to come up with an online privacy self-regulatory regime or government was going to do it for them.

"[T]hough you dazzle consumers with your ends you also frighten us with your means," she said. "The lifecycle of recent data breaches and the lag time in appropriate consumer notification is a trend that I fear perpetuates industry's "culture of damage control." She warned that government was even now laying out plans to "rush in" with all its "corrosive potential." She also said she wanted the Federal Communications Commission out of the privacy area, and would introduce a bill to repeal some of its authority. While Rep Blackburn isn't looking for an active Federal Trade Commission, she does say that it, not the FCC, should be wielding the authority in that space. She says she is even planning to introduce legislation to repeal section 222 Communications Act, which empowers the FCC to oversee the confidentiality of telecommunications subscribers' proprietary info, and section 631, which is a prohibition on a cable system's disclosure of personally identifiable info without prior consent.