New Congress Focuses on Online Privacy

Circulating Bills Would Tackle Mobile Tracking, Information Sharing

By John Eggerton -- Multichannel News, 2/6/2012 12:01:00 AM

Washington — It didn’t take long for the online privacy issue to heat up in the new session of Congress.

On the House side, Rep. Ed Markey (DMass.) last week circulated draft legislation aimed at mobile tracking software, while in the Senate, Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) held a hearing on a house-passed amendment that would make it easier for online video distributors to share information about users’ video choices.

Those were just two of the most prominent of a series of brushfires and signal flares on the online data privacy front. Here’s a handy guide to what went on during a week thick with online privacy and data security news:

Is Three a Crowd? A bill that would allow Netflix to secure a blanket agreement from users to share their choice of video rentals with third parties looks like it will get more scrutiny in the Senate than it did in the House. HR 2571, which amends the Video Privacy Protection Act to allow for blanket permission from users instead of the current per-title permission requirement, got a hearing in the Senate Privacy Subcommittee last week (a recent subcommittee addition to the Judiciary panel, due to increased focus on online privacy issues).

The bill passed in the Republicancontrolled House Dec. 6 on a vote of 303-116 and without a hearing. At last week’s hearing subcommittee chairman Al Franken (DMinn.) said that the bill appeared to have been rushed through the House and indicated that would not be the case in the Senate.

Chill Out on Opt-Out: Google told concerned legislators that its move to update its privacy policy still gives users plenty of control over how their data is used and does not involve collecting or sharing any new data with third parties. That came in response to a letter from a bipartisan group of House members concerned about Google’s announcement on that policy change.

One of those members — Markey, the cochairman of the House Privacy Caucus — was not assuaged. “Despite Google’s recent response, it still appears that consumers will not be able to completely opt out of data collection and information sharing among Google’s services,” Markey said in an email message to Multichannel News. “Congress and consumers need more details, and I look forward to meeting with Google to get clarification about what the options are for consumers who wish to say no to these new changes.”

Markey last week continued to push the Federal Trade Commission for an answer on whether Google’s update violated the terms of settlement with the Federal Communications Commission over its privacy policy.

Taking Aim at Tracking: Markey was flexing his muscles elsewhere last week as co-chair of the caucus. He circulated a draft bill on mobile-device privacy in the wake of news last month that Carrier IQ software on smart phones and other devices tracks user keystrokes without their knowledge or consent.

Markey has asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the software. He followed up that call with a discussion draft of a bill that would require disclosure of monitoring software, including whether it has been installed on a phone, which data it is collecting and to whom the information is being sent. Markey’s measure would also require that users opt in to data collection before it could begin. In addition, the third parties would have to have information protection policies in place and any carrier agreements to share information with third parties would have to be filed at both the FTC and the FCC.

The Face Is Familiar: The Federal Trade Commission got a spur and a shout-out from Capitol Hill for investigating facial recognition software, which has been tested by Apple, Facebook and Google. In a letter to the commission, Privacy Caucus members, including Markey and co-chair Joe Barton (R-Tex.), said, “As companies continue to develop and deploy these new technologies, clear policies guiding the implementation, operation, and maintenance of these technologies is essential.”