Senators, witnesses slam amendment to video privacy law

The Senate Judiciary subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law held a hearing to examine proposed changes to the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), which requires firms to obtain customers' consent before sharing any information about their video rental history.

Changing a crucial video privacy law to allow companies to obtain blanket consent to share customers' viewing choices would gut one of the government's most effective privacy laws, according to witnesses and lawmakers. Several lawmakers and witnesses used their opening remarks to criticize H.R. 2471, which passed the House in December and was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Electronic Privacy Information Center executive director Marc Rotenberg said the bill could gut what is in many respects a model privacy law. The bill would amend the VPPA to allow video providers to obtain consent to share customers' viewing histories up front rather than every time the information is shared. Netflix has strongly backed the bill to enable easier sharing of customer viewing habits on sites like Facebook.