Privacy Commission Needed, Professor Tells House Panel
The U.S. needs a strong governmental commission to protect personal privacy because private safeguards are insufficient, Fordham University Law School professor Joel R. Reidenberg warned a Congressional panel last week.
Testifying at an oversight hearing before the courts and intellectual property subcommittee, Reidenberg said a U.S. Data Protection Commission was needed because Internet industry initiatives to protect personal privacy in electronic commerce “are an inadequate substitute for legal rights.”
A federal Data Protection Commission, he said, would be able to enforce various federal privacy laws, have the ability to promote fair information practices with constant advice and publicity on privacy issues to Congress, industry, and the public, and represent the U.S. at international privacy policy making bodies such as the European Commission.
Reidenberg, who teaches information technology law courses, including data privacy law, also called for the adoption of European-style privacy protection legislation which gives individuals absolute control over the use of their personal information.
Other countries around the world, including Australia, Canada and emerging economies in Latin America “are turning to the European model of data privacy for guidance rather than the U.S. industry driven model,” he noted.
Another witness, Deirdre Mulligan, staff counsel for the Center for Democracy and Technology, called for tighter self-regulatory controls and stressed that federal laws are needed, especially to protect individual medical records.
Testifying in favor of more industry self-regulation were Commerce Department General Counsel Andrew Pincus; Jodi Bernstein, director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection; Marc Szafran, general counsel, Entertainment Software Rating Board Privacy Online Program, and Paula Bruening, director of compliance and policy, TRUSTe, a nonprofit Internet privacy program.
Officials at the Direct Marketing Association were unavailable for comment at deadline.
