More on Internet Privacy Legislation

Last week we noted that Senator Hollings had introduced a privacy bill and that there were likely to be more introduced. Now Salon has a piece critical of Hollings' bill. EPIC wrote about it as well, and they seem to think it's not too bad, all things considered. Read Hollings' bill yourself and decide who's right. Also of note is a bill introduced in the House that would require all Federal agencies to prepare privacy impact statements (the ACLU has a summary) akin to the environmental impact statements now required for actions adversely affecting the environment. Seems like a good idea to me.

Comments

Sigh ...

[ProfMoriarty]

The problem with OPPA (as its currently called) is obvious (to those who read the article).

Unfortunately, this legislation looks likely it would pass, since it isn't as obvious to what's really going on ...

The second is "nonsensitive" information, and among that will include your name, address, and records of anything you buy or surf on the Internet.

Under the act, business can't collect or divulge the sensitive bits without your express consent, but anything classified as nonsensitive can be freely collected and sold at will.