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Released: May 06, 2010

Advocates highlight problems in draft online privacy bill

Contact: Michelle De Mooy at (301) 244-5081 (media inquiries only)

Consumer Action and other consumer and privacy advocates spoke out about serious problems contained in a draft online privacy bill unveiled by Representative Rick Boucher, Democratic chairman of the House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet, and ranking Republican Representative Cliff Stearns. Overall, advocates view the bill as weak and anti-consumer. Among other concerns, the bill uses a notice-and-consent model that has been disproven as an effective public policy for consumers and does not offer an opt-in requirement for publishers, advertisers, and third-parties to use that data for ad targeting. In fact, some consumer groups believe the legislation merely mimics current industry self-regulation practices. Consumer Action issued the following statement to the press about the draft bill: "While we are happy that Rep Boucher has taken steps to begin the conversation about online privacy, this bill is not the answer. It does not effectively protect consumer information online and needs substantial revision. Consumers are getting angrier and angrier about companies hiding under privacy policies to get to their personal information. Notice and consent have been dis-proven as an effective policy and we were disheartened to this included here as a panacea. We were also disheartened to see a pre-emption clause and no private right of action. A few items we would want to see include stronger data minimization, stronger limits on data retention, as well as public notice when there are breaches (something included in law already via the stimulus bill), and a link to make filing complaints easier for consumers. We are happy to work with Congress to revise this bill." Download a .pdf version of the draft online privacy bill