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Politech is the oldest Internet resource devoted to politics and technology. Launched in 1994 by Declan McCullagh, the mailing list has chronicled the growing intersection of culture, technology, politics, and law. Since 2000, so has the Politech web site.
[This is an important story, but it's anticlimatic. When was the last time you heard a regulator say: "No, we don't need more regulatory power. Any more would create the potential for abuse. In fact, our budgets are too big as they are. And our staff is far too large. Please take some of it away." --Declan] FTC press release: http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2000/05/privacy2k.htm Excerpt: >The Report recommends that Congress enact legislation to ensure a minimum >level of privacy protection for online consumers, establishing "basic >standards of practice for the collection of information online." This >legislation would require consumer-oriented commercial Web sites "that >collect personal identifying information from or about consumers online" >to "comply with the four widely-accepted fair information practices: >"Notice, Choice, Access and Security." News coverage: http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/business/DailyNews/internetprivacy_000523.html http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-1926088.html?tag=st.ne.1430735..ni http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2574082,00.html http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,36516,00.html http://www.theregister.co.uk/000521-000001.html http://www.msnbc.com/news/410253.asp?cp1=1 ********** STATEMENT OF FTC COMMISSIONER ORSON SWINDLE Online Privacy May 22, 2000 While not commenting directly on the FTC's Online Privacy report that will be publicly released tomorrow, let me simply state positions that I have been expressing over the past two years. Industry self-regulation is working. Effective privacy protection is more than a numbers game and the private sector is continuing to address consumer concerns about privacy, because it is in industry's interest to do so. Let us not make the search for the perfect the enemy of the good. The best way to build consumer trust and to ensure the continued growth of the Internet is through a combination of education, strong industry self-regulation, and strong FTC enforcement under existing legal authority. It would be premature and counterproductive for the Commission to radically change course and call for broad legislation. Legislation could limit consumer choices and provide a disincentive for the development of further technological solutions. Government regulation may actually give consumers fewer choices, and as technology changes, less privacy. Legislation should be reserved for problems that the market cannot fix on its own and should not be adopted without consideration of the problems legislation may create by, for example, imposing costs or other unintended consequences that could severely stifle the thriving New Economy. Let no one doubt how strong my views are about why the market works here or the level of scrutiny that I would apply to any proposed legislation. A detailed economic analysis of the costs of legislating privacy should be in hand before the Nation goes down the perilous path of government regulation. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- the moderated mailing list of politics and technology To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ --------------------------------------------------------------------------