Protecting Information Privacy In The 21st CenturyProtecting Information Privacy In The 21st Century

After reorganization of the Energy and Commerce Committee for the 107th Congress, I became chairman of the Commerce, Trade & Consumer Protection Subcommittee. At the top of my agenda is a careful, thoughtful, and thorough examination of the information privacy issue.

The way we live and do business has been transformed by the convergence of information and telecommunications technologies. Many describe that transformation as indicative of the dawning of a knowledge-based society and economy. Such a society and economy, best exemplified by the Internet and E-commerce, is highly dependent on information.

As individuals and businesses turn to computers for commercial and personal reasons, massive volumes of personal information is generated, collected, and stored. For example, last year, over 100 million American households went online--communicating via E-mail, renewing a driver's license, researching an ailment, or conducting financial transactions.

All those activities generate a footprint, of sorts: personal data. That data is used by governments and commercial businesses to advance the activity for which the data was offered. Yet, a lot of data is garnered (both online and offline) that only derivatively advances commercial and governmental purposes. And, at times, consumer data is collected and used for nefarious purposes.

Widespread computer use, combined with the increasing collection of personal information (especially online), has heightened Americans' concerns over their personal information privacy. New information-collection techniques, such as keystroke monitoring and E-mail snooping, demonstrate the extent to which users are subject to data collection activities, both online and offline. The public has legitimate concerns.

Legitimate Concerns
I called for a series of six hearings, now completed, focused on information privacy--with an eye toward discerning if a legislative approach was feasible and warranted.

The record from the six hearings, the most comprehensive in Congress on information privacy, is most instructive. My deliberations on the information privacy issue are informed by a number of key observations highlighted within that record:

Americans' information privacy concerns have rightfully been heightened with the advent of online data collection. But personal data is collected both online and offline.

Historically, because our economy is a consumer-based economy, consumer information has played an important role in its growth. The collection of consumer data online is just a new dimension, albeit a very significant one. Consumer information, whether collected online or offline, is aggregated into the same databases and processed by the same computers, without regard for the data's source. Any legislation intended to be responsive to the public's concerns regarding information privacy must be mindful of that fact.

The record is also clear that Americans are most concerned with abuses that attach to the collection and use of certain personal data. Thus, privacy legislation must be responsive to identified harms or abuses. A myriad of existing federal and state laws directly or indirectly address information privacy issues. Thus, it's important to recognize that we're not operating in a legal vacuum on the issue of privacy. Any information privacy fix contemplated by Congress must take into account, learn from, and ultimately integrate well with the existing and varied statutes addressing information privacy.

Those six hearings concluded one phase of our inquiry, but not the inquiry itself. My colleagues and I are now examining the need for a legislative response and the various potential approaches addressing consumers' information privacy concerns. My goal is to present the subcommittee a discussion plan in September.

Representative Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., was elected to Congress in 1988; his first elected office. Stearns serves as vice chairman of the Veterans Affairs Subcommittee. On the Energy & Commerce Committee, he is chairman of the Commerce, Trade & Consumer Protection Subcommittee, where he focuses on privacy issues and consumer safety. Stearns is also vice chairman of the Telecommunications Subcommittee and a major leader in the deregulation of the industry.