[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4731 Introduced in House (IH)]







109th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4731

    To require owners of Internet websites to destroy obsolete data 
                    containing personal information.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            February 8, 2006

  Mr. Markey introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To require owners of Internet websites to destroy obsolete data 
                    containing personal information.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Eliminate Warehousing of Consumer 
Internet Data Act of 2006''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) As the Nation's communications networks continue to 
        grow and become ever more sophisticated, more individuals and 
        industries will be using such networks to communicate and 
        conduct commercial transactions.
            (2) The ease of gathering and compiling personal 
        information during such communications, both overtly and 
        surreptitiously, is becoming increasingly efficient and almost 
        effortless due to advances in digital telecommunications 
        technology and the widespread use of the Internet.
            (3) Consumers have an ownership interest in their personal 
        information.
            (4) Information gathered about consumers over the Internet 
        can provide detail about some of the most intimate aspects of 
        an individual's life, including their Internet interests, 
        communications with other citizens, purchases, information 
        inquiries, and political or religious interests, affiliations, 
        or speech.
            (5) Certain information about Internet searches or website 
        visits conducted from a particular computer can be obtained and 
        stored by websites or search engines, and can be traced back to 
        individual computer users.
            (6) Fair information practices include providing consumers 
        with knowledge of any data collection, conspicuous consumer 
        notice of an entity's data practices, consumer choice to 
        provide consent or deny authorization for such practices, 
        access to data collected, safeguards to ensure data integrity, 
        and contact information.
            (7) In order to safeguard consumer privacy interests, 
        companies that gather personal information that can identify 
        individual consumers should cease to store such information 
        after it is no longer necessary to render service to such 
        consumers or to conduct any legitimate business practice.
            (8) Cable operators, who can gather personal information 
        about a subscriber's use of the cable system and obtain 
        information about a consumer's video programming choices and 
        use of their cable modem are currently required under section 
        631 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 551) to 
        destroy any personal information gathered from a subscriber 
        after it is no longer necessary for the purpose for which it 
        was gathered and if there are no other pending legal requests 
        for such information.
            (9) A similar obligation should govern information gathered 
        about consumers by Internet websites, which often possess 
        information about computer users which is more detailed, and 
        arguably more personalized, than information cable operators 
        typically gather.

SEC. 3. DESTRUCTION OF DATA WITH PERSONAL INFORMATION BY INTERNET 
              WEBSITES.

    An owner of an Internet website shall destroy, within a reasonable 
period of time, any data containing personal information if the 
information is no longer necessary for the purpose for which it was 
collected or any other legitimate business purpose, or there are no 
pending requests or orders for access to such information pursuant to a 
court order.

SEC. 4. ENFORCEMENT BY THE FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION.

    A violation of section 3 shall be treated as a violation of a rule 
defining an unfair or deceptive act or practice prescribed under 
section 18(a)(1)(B) of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 
57a(a)(1)(B)). The Federal Trade Commission shall enforce this Act in 
the same manner, by the same means, and with the same jurisdiction as 
though all applicable terms and provisions of the Federal Trade 
Commission Act were incorporated into and made a part of this Act.

SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS.

    As used in this Act the following definitions apply:
            (1) The term ``Internet'' means collectively the myriad of 
        computer and telecommunications facilities, including equipment 
        and operating software, which comprise the interconnected 
        world-wide network of networks that employ the Transmission 
        Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, or any predecessor or 
        successor protocols to such protocol, to communicate 
        information of all kinds by wire or radio.
            (2) The term ``personal information''--
                    (A) means information that allows a living person 
                to be identified individually, including the following: 
                the first and last name of an individual, a home or 
                physical address of an individual, date or place of 
                birth, an email address, a telephone number, a Social 
                Security number, a tax identification number, birth 
                certificate number, passport number, driver's license 
                number, credit card number, bank card number, or any 
                government-issued identification number; and
                    (B) does not include any record of aggregate data 
                that does not permit the identification of particular 
                persons.
            (3) The term ``web page'' means a location that has a 
        single Uniform Resource Locator or another single location with 
        respect to the Internet, as the Federal Trade Commission may 
        prescribe.
            (4) The term ``Internet website'' means a collection of web 
        pages that are presented and made available by means of the 
        Internet as a single website (or a single web page so presented 
        and made available), which web pages have any of the following 
        characteristics:
                    (A) A common domain name.
                    (B) Common ownership, management, or registration.
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