GROUP WANTS TO BAN SOME NET TRACKING TECHNOLOGIES

As reported by Andy Sullivan, Reuters, a key U.S. Congressional group says it wants to pass a strong privacy bill and ban some Internet tracking technologies that monitor Web users as it tackles "the civil-rights issue of the decade."

The four co-chairs of the increasingly prominent Congressional Privacy Caucus said they did not want to override state legislation. But federal privacy laws were needed to address growing public concerns about electronic surveillance and especially "bugs" that secretly track online behavior, they added.

"Privacy is going to become the civil-rights issue of the decade," caucus co-chair Rep. Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, said Thursday at a news conference.

Markey was joined by co-chairs Rep. Joe Barton, a Texas Republican; Sen. Richard Shelby, an Alabama Republican; and Sen. Chris Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat.

Many commercial Web sites regard information collected from customers and visitors as a key asset as it can help advertisers target clients or allow trade in personal data, such as people's finances.

But while some Internet trade groups oppose new privacy laws, others have recognized that a government role is inevitable.

Dodd and Shelby introduced proposals last year to limit the ability of companies to share medical and financial data, and to require businesses to obtain parental consent before conducting market research on their children.

But the caucus leaders said they would focus their efforts this year on a bill to limit the ways Web sites can collect and trade the personal information of Web surfers.

Caucus will play important role

Legislators have said they expect Congress to pass some sort of Internet privacy bill this year.

The question is what sort of bill will emerge: one that sets minimal guidelines and encourages industry to police itself, or one that provides stronger federal protections for consumers?

The caucus, which spans both parties and both chambers of Congress, will play an important role in coordinating the many bills that tackle the issue and the many committees that claim jurisdiction.

At least 13 privacy bills have been introduced so far this year, and several more from the 2000 session are expected to be reintroduced.

Markey said the caucus would not allow a federal privacy law to preempt laws passed by individual states. High-tech groups have sought a preemption clause to avoid having to deal with a patchwork of varying state regulations.

"We would not permit preemption unless (the federal bill) provided a high degree of protection for the American people," Markey said.

But Dodd said the caucus would be willing to negotiate on the provision.

Barton said the group will hold hearings in late February to investigate a tracking technology called "Web bugs."

Web bugs, also known as clear GIFs, enable advertisers to secretly track the online behavior of individual Web surfers for marketing purposes. Web bugs can also be encoded in e-mail messages and linked with an individual's Web-surfing log.

"As far as I'm concerned, we ought to put in law an outright ban" on Web bugs, Barton said.