Kerry and McCain to introduce a bill on what data can be collected on people

Mr. McCain, an Arizona Republican, and Mr. Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, are backing a bill that would require companies to seek a person's permission to share data about him with outsiders. It would also give people the right to see the data collected on them. The bill is expected to be introduced ahead of a Senate Commerce Committee hearing next Wednesday on online privacy.

The move comes amid widening scrutiny of the tracking industry. In the past year, The Wall Street Journal's "What They Know" series has revealed that popular websites install thousands of tracking technologies on people's computers without their knowledge, feeding an industry that gathers and sells information on their finances, political leanings and religious interests, among other things.
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he draft Kerry-McCain bill would create the nation's first comprehensive privacy law, covering personal-data gathering across all industries. That was a key recommendation of a recent Commerce Department's report, developed in part by Sen. Kerry's brother Cameron, the department's general counsel. Current laws cover only the use of certain types of personal data, such as financial and medical information.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704629104576190911145462284.html#ixzz1G9wV9KMs

I remember years ago, Kerry coming into a hearing near the end with a Choice point exec and waking up the committee with questions like if they sold their date to any political campaign - this after he spoke of how when the data is compiled on one person, it tells much of their life - and they never gave permission for anyone to know all that.

Sen. John Kerry, a senior Democrat, and technology giant Microsoft Corp. on Wednesday backed the Obama administration's call for broad privacy legislation at a Senate hearing that also exposed hurdles to passing such a law.

"Modern technology allows private entities to observe the activity of Americans on a scale that is unimaginable, and there is no general law" governing the collection and use of that data, Sen. Kerry told the Senate Commerce Committee.

The Massachusetts lawmaker said he was working with others and soon planned to introduce a "privacy bill of rights."

The Commerce Department called at Wednesday's hearing for a privacy law that includes enforceable protections for consumers' personal information and a stronger role for the Federal Trade Commission.

The guy from (evil) ChoicePoint it skimming along and then Kerry starts questioning him (about 1:20 into the hearing, btw.) The Poor ChoicePoint bastard is just hosed by my esteemed Junior Senator. (The witness just starts admitting that he doesn't know what Kerry is asking him. Lots of "no, Sir" responses to questions from Kerry about how freely info gets out from ChoicePoint.)

This is what I mean, Just awesome. It's like Kerry comes in and the witness suddenly realizes that he can't coast anymore because the one questioning him knows what the hell he is talking about. You can't bullshit him. "Yes, Sir", "No, Sir" "Yes, I agree, Sir."

Loved it. :loveya: :loveya: :evilgrin:

Hey, FIRE, Listen to Kerry on this. He is getting at something on the 'selling info to political action committees' thing. Just pull this up at the time stamp i have and go for about 20 minutes or so. The political action committee thing came up at 1:37

So it is good to see a groundswell of support emerging for minimum standards of privacy, online and off. This week, the Obama administration called for legislation to protect consumers’ privacy. In the Senate, John Kerry is trying to draft a privacy bill of rights with the across-the-aisle support of John McCain.

Microsoft, which runs one of the biggest Internet advertising networks, said it supports a broad-based privacy law. It has just introduced a version of its Explorer browser that allows surfers to block some tools advertisers use to track consumers’ activities online.
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Senator Kerry has not yet proposed specific legislation, but he has laid out sound principles. Companies that track people’s activities online must obtain people’s consent first. They must specify what data they are collecting and how they will use it. They need consumers’ go-ahead to use data for any new purpose. They are responsible for the data’s integrity. And consumers should have the right to sever their relationship with data collectors and ask for their file to be deleted.

But there are potential areas of concern. Senator Kerry so far has not called for a do-not-track option. He would allow companies to write their own privacy plans and submit them to the F.T.C. for approval.

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Kerry's legislation is the latest in a line of efforts from lawmakers, government organizations, consumer watchdog organizations and browser companies to thwart this common practice. Over the past few months, Microsoft with its Internet Explorer browser and Mozilla with its Firefox browser, have both introduced 'Do Not Track' functionality. With the backing of Kerry and McCain, 'Do Not Track' functionality could become law.

"The purpose of the legislation I will present is not to discourage information sharing, but to encourage it -- but under a common code of conduct that respects the rights of both the people sharing their information and legitimate organizations collecting and using it on fair terms and conditions," Kerry said at the hearings.

Kerry said while data collecting and sharing with advertisers can stimulate the economy, it also leads to unethical information collecting. Once companies collect a person's information, there are no legal restrictions on further distribution other than anything that is self-imposed.

"We cannot continue to allow the collector's of people's information to dictate the level of privacy protection Americans get when they engage in commerce. And we cannot continue to let firms provide no protections, provide misleading statements of protection that they can change at will, or send the information along to others without care for where it goes or under what conditions," Kerry said.

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Read more: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/123565/20110316/do-not-track-ftc-president-obama-john-kerry-john-mccain.htm#ixzz1H2uJM2EU