Dozier Internet Law: Dozier Internet Law Legislation Update

Dozier Internet Law is following a number of legislative and regulatory initiatives. The cause of so much proposed legislation? Failure of the industry to self regulate.

The FTC recently promulgated the “Behavioral Advertising Privacy Principles”, government’s effort to gain some reasonable control over personally identifiable data being used for advertising purposes. At the same time privacy advocates were pushing for the establishment of a “Do Not Track Registry” for online behavior tracking. Congress and state legislatures didn’t seem impressed by the new regulatory schemes.

The state of Washington passed the first “anti-spyware” legislation several years ago, and now Congress is today considering a similar law. You’d be surprised by the broad nature of the definition of “spyware” and since Dozier Internet Law litigated what appears to be the first case involving violation of a state "anti-spyware" law we have a pretty thorough understanding of the broad interpretation being embraced. There are proposed laws working their way through legislatures and Congress requiring data breach notifications to those affected by data loss, strengthening “security freeze statutes”, restricting Social Security Number transfer and publication, restricting the ability to maintain data, and requiring those responsible for data theft to reimburse financial institutions. Also at the state level there are laws being considered that would require opt-in for data sharing and the establishment of “do not sell lists” for personally identifiable data.

What does today’s environment tell us? It tells us that we, as an industry, missed the boat. We missed the opportunity to self regulate: to establish privacy policy standards with teeth, to establish data security standards and meaningfully enforce them, to buy and sell data and leads in a responsible way and treat the information as if it was our own, to be forthright about what data we are tracking…and keeping…and storing…and sharing…and packaging…and using…and selling.

I just finished an article on this subject for Practical E-Commerce Magazine. Lack of control, good judgment and discretion has its price. Great industries self police to avoid governmental intervention. Visit Dozier Internet Law and you can also review the lawsuits that are being filed in Federal courts at the Dozier Internet Law Federal Court Report.