Boucher Seeking Written Comments On Privacy Bill
House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., is giving interested parties until June 4 to provide him with written comments on his draft privacy bill.
Before and after that time, he said he would be meeting with stakeholders from both industry and consumer organizations as he moves to finish a final draft. Boucher, who drafted the bill with subcommittee ranking member Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., said Thursday that he would make revisions to the draft based on stakeholder feedback "in order to build a broad consensus."
The draft, released on Tuesday, would require Web sites to inform users how they collect and use personally identifiable information. Generally, consumers would have to opt out of having such information collected, though it would mandate that users opt-in before Web sites could collect sensitive information such as financial and health data or share personally-identifiable data with some third-parties. Third-party ad networks, however, would be exempt from this opt-in requirement as long as they adhere to certain requirements.
Privacy groups were very critical of the draft bill, saying it doesn't do much to improve on the current self-regulatory system. They also oppose provisions that would pre-empt state laws and bar consumers from filing privacy-based lawsuits against firms.
Online firms such as Google and Yahoo praised the process. In a statement Wednesday, Yahoo said, "While there certainly remain some fundamental issues to be worked out to make sure that this legislation protects the extraordinary breadth of free services for consumers made possible by online advertising, Yahoo commends the hard work that Reps. Boucher and Stearns have done thus far and we are grateful that they have stated they are not looking to disrupt this business model with their legislation."
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