Privacy in the spotlight at two Hill hearings

The clash of perspectives on Internet privacy is expected to intensify next week as both the Senate Commerce Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Consumer Protection Subcommittee hold separate hearings--with separate agendas--on the subject. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ernest (Fritz) Hollings, D-S.C., announced Monday that he will hold a hearing on Internet privacy Wednesday, July 11, a two-panel session that is scheduled to begin with testimony from privacy advocates and conclude with replies by Internet companies and an investment analyst. The hearing will be the first on the subject in the Senate this year, and observers expect that Hollings eventually will reintroduce legislation to require businesses to obtain "opt-in" consent before sharing or reselling customers' personal information. Meanwhile, House subcommittee Chairman Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., said in a Monday interview with National Journal's Technology Daily that he has scheduled his sixth hearing of the year. It is expected to cover how businesses in various industries use the personal information they buy and sell. Stearns and Ken Johnson, the spokesman for Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman W.J. (Billy) Tauzin, R-La., said they are prepared to draft Internet privacy legislation after the hearing, but both said they would not introduce any bill until they vet it with industry at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce privacy event scheduled for September--a slipping of an earlier schedule that had Stearns unveiling draft legislation in June. Although Stearns and Tauzin have said they support legislation mandating that Web businesses provide notice of privacy policies and the choice for consumers to "opt out" of information-collection practices, some industry observers said their panels had been scaling back their agendas and may press for a narrower privacy bill, such as one dealing exclusively with identity theft. The demand for privacy legislation in the House has cooled considerably because of recent statements by both Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, and Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., that broad Internet privacy legislation is not necessary at the moment. "With both Gephardt and Armey coming out and saying 'no bill,' the leadership is backing away from it a little bit," said Dan Burton, vice president of government affairs for Entrust. "I think the Commerce Committee is looking for a scaled-down version" of privacy legislation, perhaps focusing on identity theft. But while Tauzin refused to rule out such a narrower approach, Stearns said he was committed to going forward with legislation that would embody important consumer protections highlighted in the hearings he has held. "There is an increasing use of personal information by Internet Web sites," Stearns said. "We have to decide what information is OK to collect, how the information is going to be used, whether it will be opt in or opt out, and the means for filing a complaint." "Gephardt isn't going to determine how we proceed," Johnson said in reference to Gephardt's statement against Internet privacy legislation. "We intend to work with [Reps. John] Dingell, [Rick] Boucher and other [Democrats] who have expressed an interest in privacy issues, but frankly, Gephardt has been more interested in politicizing committee problems than finding solutions."