Lawmakers Tell Web Firms to Safeguard Privacy

Federal regulators and lawmakers from both parties on Tuesday warned companies doing business on the Internet to better protect the privacy of consumers soon or face new regulation.

With surveys showing many Web sites collecting personal data about Internet surfers without revealing how the information will be used, momentum has grown to reject the Clinton administration’s reliance on voluntary industry standards.

Federal Trade Commission Chairman Robert Pitofsky told lawmakers at a House Commerce Committee subcommittee hearing that legislation is needed to better protect children but that industry should be given until the end of the year to develop better protection for adults.

Any such law should give an agency like the FTC the authority to establish minimum privacy standards for different industries, Pitofsky said. Web sites should reveal what information they collect, allow consumers to control dissemination of data and offer consumers a way to check and correct data for inaccuracies, he said.

A group of leading companies doing business on the Internet asked lawmakers for more time, however. The group, called the Online Privacy Alliance, proposed a plan for third-party validation of privacy practices. An outside group would allow Web sites that met certain privacy protection policies to carry a seal or label alerting consumers.