Sens. Kerry and McCain press agencies for final privacy reports

Sens. John Kerry (D-MA) and John McCain (R-AR) pressed the Department of Commerce and the Federal Trade Commission to release their final reports on consumer privacy protections.

Both agencies released draft reports last December that identified gaps in current privacy protections, but neither has issued its final report. “Consumers are confused and concerned about how their information is collected and distributed, and firms collecting information on people are not bound to any common set of practices and are making them up as they go along," the senators wrote. "Congress and the public could use the guidance of the expert agencies in the form of final reports to help make sense of current practices and how to best protect innovation without sacrificing people’s privacy." In their letter the senators note the draft reports both concluded that industry self-regulation had failed to provide adequate privacy protections for consumers, suggesting the need for legislation. "And both reports presented what the expert staff at your agencies considered would constitute a better framework for addressing privacy issues in commerce. We leaned heavily on those frameworks to construct S.799, the Commercial Privacy Bill of Rights," the letter states.