The Federal Trade Commission came under fire from one of its own commissioners and a privacy advocate for strongly supporting industry self-regulation over legislation to protect personal privacy over the Internet.
Testifying at the Senate Communications Subcommittee hearing on the Online Privacy Protection Act of 1999 (S-809), FTC commissioner Sheila F. Anthony said she disagreed with agency chairman Robert Pitofsky and commissioner Orson Swindle that legislation to address online privacy is not appropriate at the moment.
The time “is ripe for federal legislation to establish at least base-line minimum standards upon which meaningful self-regulation can flourish,” she said. Despite a majority of the commission’s support for having the industry develop its own Internet privacy guidelines, Anthony said the industry was acting “too slow” in achieving that goal.
Earlier, Pitofsky testified that the majority agreed “legislation to address online privacy is not appropriate at this time [and that industry] self-regulation is the least intrusive and most efficient means to ensure fair information practices online.”
Swindle said self-imposed industry guidelines would do more to protect personal privacy over the Internet “than more laws and bureaucratic decision making.”
Marc Rotenberg, Electronic Privacy Information Center director, charged the FTC with ignoring the recommendations of experts, academics and the public to examine seriously the adequate self-regulations to protect online privacy. He called the industry’s self-regulatory policies meaningless.
Network
