U.S. Lawmakers Ready Bills to Let Web Users Avoid Tracking
Senator Jay Rockefeller said he’ll introduce “do not track” legislation next week to allow consumers to protect their personal information from being collected and used by online companies.
The legislation would let consumers opt out of having information about their online activities collected and allow the Federal Trade Commission to pursue enforcement action against companies that don’t honor users’ requests, Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, said today in a news release.
“Consumers have a right to know when and how their personal and sensitive information is being used online, and most importantly to be able to say ‘no thanks’ when companies seek to gather that information without their approval,” said Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee.
Rockefeller’s announcement is part of increasing U.S. congressional scrutiny of Internet privacy. House lawmakers today released draft legislation that would require companies to obtain parental consent for collecting children’s personal data online and prohibit the use of that information for targeted marketing.
The privacy debate is also focusing on the ability of mobile devices to identify users’ locations. Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Google Inc. (GOOG) are scheduled to testify at a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on May 10 to answer questions about how they collect data, including the location of consumers, from smartphones and tablet computers.
Witness List
The Judiciary hearing, chaired by Senator Al Franken, a Minnesota Democrat, follows criticism of Apple over its data collection practices.
An April 20 report by two computer programmers said that the operating system in Apple’s iPhones and iPad tablet computers logs users’ coordinates along with the time that a location is visited.
Apple said April 27 that it does not track iPhone users’ location while acknowledging that it collects data on WiFi hotspots and wireless towers near the device. Apple issued a software update this week to limit how much of that location information was being logged or let users turn off the feature.
Guy “Bud” Tribble, Apple’s vice president of software technology, and Alan Davidson, Google’s public policy director, were listed as witnesses for the Judiciary hearing next week, along with officials from the Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department, and privacy advocates and researchers.
Children’s Privacy
The draft House bill on children’s privacy, released today by Representatives Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, and Joe Barton, a Texas Republican, would limit collection of location and other personal data on children and teens.
The measure would also create an “eraser button” allowing parents and children to eliminate “publicly available” personal information when “technologically feasible,” according to an e-mailed statement from the lawmakers.
To contact the reporter on this story: Eric Engleman in Washington at eengleman1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Allan Holmes at aholmes25@bloomberg.net
Rate this Page