House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., i...
House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., is working with Republicans on a draft bill about online privacy and targeted advertising, he said at the State of the Net West conference in Santa Clara, California. The bill would require…
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sites to give users an opt-in choice when sharing site visitors’ information with unaffiliated companies. But the legislation would reflect an opt-out policy for data used by the visited sites, marketing affiliates, and fellow members of ad networks that pool information for user profiles and allow consumers to see and change them. Boucher said a draft will be out “in the not-too-distant future.” The timing of the draft depends on agreement with Republicans Cliff Stearns of Florida and Joe Barton of Texas, he told us. The measure’s coverage would be broad enough to cover data collection by ISPs, Boucher said. Categories of “sensitive information,” such as medical, sexual orientation and minor’s information, street address and financial and government identifiers, would always be covered by opt-in, he said. He said the Federal Trade Commission would handle enforcement, but state attorneys general could enforce the law, too. Boucher said he wouldn’t make provision for industry self- regulation, except to allow private organizations to have the first crack at enforcement. A company’s obligations wouldn’t vary and there would be no safe harbor for taking part in self-regulation efforts, he said. Boucher said he’s open to extending the proposed duties to offline information collection, but that would be outside his subcommittee’s jurisdiction. Later in the conference, speaking generally, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va. and caucus co-chairman, said “opt-out is largely the way to go” in privacy policy, except for especially sensitive information such as that on health, finances and children.