Congressional Draft Privacy Bill Released, To Mixed Reactions

Privacy advocates claim bill is too vague, say data would be kept too long

Candice Herman, Children's Services Librarian, Oceanside Library, NY -- Library Journal, 05/06/2010

• Boucher assures that bill will not disrupt e-commerce
• Privacy groups cite too many loopholes
• ALA reserves comment but calls it a start

U.S. Reps. Rick Boucher (D-VA), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet, and Cliff Stearns (R-FL), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee, on Tuesday released a discussion draft of legislation aimed to assure the privacy of information about individuals both on the Internet and offline. But many privacy groups claim the bill is flawed and the wording too vague.

The draft states that the legislation will confer privacy rights on individuals, informing them of the personal information that is shared about them and giving them greater control over the collection and use of that information. Companies that collect personally identifiable information (PII) about individuals must display conspicuous and clearly written privacy policies.

Boucher, founder of the House Internet Caucus, notes that online advertising supports much of the commercial content available on the Internet today without charge, and says the legislation would not disrupt this well established business model. It would simply extend to consumers important baseline privacy protections.

Opt-out or opt-in?
The bill would require companies to offer consumers both opt-in or opt-out options for online data collection.

While privacy advocates have historically called for a default opt-in, Google warned, "Partially-informed opt-ins that ask for excessive data, for example, could actually be more harmful for users’ privacy than better-designed, more intuitive and granular opt outs."

“It still largely depends on the opting in and out regime where notice and consent is kind of at the center of privacy practices,” Leslie Harris, executive director of the Center for Democracy & Technology, told Wired. “At least from CDT’s perspective, notice and consent has not been working.”

More criticisms
Other privacy groups have made ‘Orwellian’ references to the provisions of the bill that prevent private enforcement and preempt state privacy laws. They also contend that few site visitors actually read privacy policies.

The bill would require websites to discard PII after 18 months, which many privacy groups suggest is too long.

ALA reaction
Lynne Bradley, Director of Government Relations in  the American Library Association’s (ALA) Washington Office, told LJ that the ALA “is still analyzing the features of this discussion draft and will be participating in various venues as the proposed bill evolves. There are still a lot of details to work out and questions to ask but it's a good start to have an important and interesting discussion.”

ALA’s commitment to privacy protections is based upon the library community’s long standing commitment to the confidentiality of library patron records.

ALA is in the midst of a national “Choose Privacy” project, sponsored by the Open Society Institute. This week is “Choose Privacy Week,” which is offering online tips to educators and parents on how to approach privacy concerns with students.(See School Library Journal for more information.)

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