Recap -- Privacy and Data Security: Protecting Consumers in the Modern World

After a meeting June 28 between Sens. John Rockefeller (D-WV) and John Kerry (D-MA), it appears that the two may be one step closer to some consensus about their respective digital privacy bills.

Since May, when Sen Rockefeller introduced the Do Not Track Online Act one month after Sens Kerry and John McCain (R-AZ) introduced the Commercial Privacy Bill of Rights, neither bill has advanced in committee. Until a hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee, which Sen Rockefeller chairs, on June 29, neither Sen Rockefeller nor Sen Kerry had given any indication of whether the two bills would be combined or if one would supersede the other. While Sens Rockefeller and Kerry may be getting closer in resolving their two bills, lobbyists on the issue believe that neither bill has the vote to get through committee yet. And on the Republican side of the committee, Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) clearly was not convinced that either bill should move ahead. “I'm not sure there is a consensus of how to protect consumers or whether legislation is the best way to do so," Sen Toomey said. "We need to make sure we don't supply a solution in search of a problem."

“Poll after poll shows," said Chairman Rockefeller at the hearing "that Americans are increasingly concerned about their loss of privacy; and those same polls show that Americans don't know what to do about it. It is my intent to change that. I want ordinary consumers to know what is being done with their personal information, and I want to give them the power to do something about it.”

Federal Trade Commission member Julie Brill said, “New online business models such as online behavioral advertising, social networking, interactive gaming, and location-based services have complicated the privacy picture. In addition, the aggregation of data in both the online and offline worlds have in some instances led to increased opportunities for fraud. For instance, entities have used past transaction history gathered from both the online and offline world to sell “sucker lists” of consumers who may be susceptible to different types of fraud. In both the online and offline worlds, data security continues to be an issue. The FTC continues to tackle each of these issues through enforcement, education, and policy initiatives.”

“Privacy is a key ingredient for sustaining consumer trust, which in turn is critical to realize the full potential for innovation and the growth of the Internet. The technical and organizational complexity of this environment makes it challenging for individual consumers to understand and manage the uses of their personal data even if they are technically adept, ” said Department of Commerce General Counsel Cameron Kerry.

Federal Communications Commission General Counsel Austin Schlick testified, "Increased use of personal data in connection with new online and wireless applications is raising serious privacy and security concerns. As the FCC recognized in the National Broadband Plan, successfully addressing these concerns will be critical to increasing adoption and deployment of technologies that benefit consumers, government, and the economy."

“We continue to urge policymakers to examine ways to establish baseline federal legislation that will clearly articulate expectations for all organizations," Hewlett-Packard's Scott Taylor said. "As more and more services are delivered through multiple parties, such as applications on mobile devices, a consistent baseline standard will strengthen the chain of accountability and unify the divergent regulations currently in existence.”

"While we believe the Commercial Privacy Bill of Rights Act will provide consumers with meaningful choice over how their personal information is collected, transferred, and used, our organization has long supported giving consumers the possibility to opt out of online tracking. That is why Consumers Union also strongly supports Chairman Rockefeller’s Do-Not-Track Online Act of 2011 as an important and necessary component of consumer online privacy policy. The bill would lend the force of law to industry’s self-regulatory efforts by requiring that when a consumer using a Do-Not-Track tool expresses a preference to not be tracked online, companies must respect that choice," said Consumers Union's Ioana Rusu.