FC: FTC wants more power to regulate web sites, and a dissent

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[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.


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