On Line privacy? Senate says "We ain't talking"

The full Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, all 23 members, was scheduled to meet today ( Wed) in Washington to discuss “Privacy Implications in Online Advertising”. The focus of the hearings was,

“concern(s) that tracking individuals’ Internet activity and gathering information from online users violates their expectations of privacy. Individuals often are unaware what information is being collected about them, how it is being used and to whom it is disseminated.”

The hearings were postponed with only a one day notice and no date for rescheduling has been set. Sources tell Edgelings that it’s questionable if these hearings will happen anytime before the Fall elections. We’re told that the committee “was having difficulty getting the witnesses from industry” they wanted to question.

Little surprise. The topics of “Opt in” and a national “Do Not Track” list are not discussions many internet companies want to have. This topic and these suggestions strike at the heart of many of the largest net companies business models. No doubt they would like the issues to go away, or be resolved quietly, without public hearings. Sources tell Edgelings that lobbyists have been busy at work surrounding this topic and now, it seems, the discussions have been postponed maybe for as long as 6 months, in part because of the election year.

Timing is everything