[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 13 (Wednesday, January 31, 2001)]
[House]
[Pages H137-H138]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               CONSUMER ONLINE PRIVACY AND DISCLOSURE ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I would like to join in the remarks 
of my colleague. The gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Shuster) has been 
very fair and worked on transportation not only, obviously, in 
Pennsylvania but all over the country. His presence will be missed.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today, though, to talk about a bill I just 
introduced, the Consumer Online Privacy and Disclosure Act.
  Unprecedented numbers of American consumers are flocking to the 
Internet to transact business and tap the nearly limitless 
informational databases that are available. The explosion in Internet 
usage, however, is not without its problems.
  Unlike shopping in a mall or browsing through a library where 
individuals travel anonymously through the merchandise racks and 
library stacks, the Internet is becoming less and less anonymous. 
Direct marketing firms

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 are now trying to identify individuals as they surf the Web to isolate 
where they visit and what they are viewing.
  This new data collection practice is most often described as Internet 
profiling. Internet profiling describes the practice of joining a 
consumer's personal information with that of his or her Internet 
viewing habits. To develop this detail profile, a ``persistent cookie'' 
must be attached to the consumer's cookie as they move through a Web 
site.
  A persistent cookie is a small text file copied for varying lengths 
of time to consumers' computers to track their movements while they are 
online. It is almost like somebody following you on the street, Mr. 
Speaker; and we have protections against that.
  My legislation would prohibit Internet Service Providers (ISP) and 
Web site operators from allowing third parties to attach these 
persistent cookies to a consumer's computer without his or her 
knowledge and consent. And that is the biggest purpose. If someone 
wants to give their consent, then that is their business.
  For example, we have these grocery cards all over the country that 
gives us a discount. We understand that by taking that discount that 
Safeway or Kroeger's or someone else is actually seeing what we buy at 
the grocery store. We agree to that in a way.
  The legislation requires the Federal Trade Commission, the FTC, to 
promulgate rules specifying that all operators of a Web site or online 
service provide a clear and conspicuous notice of their privacy policy 
in clear, non-legalistic terms.
  The bill also requires a Web site or online service to provide 
consumers with an option to prevent the use of their personal 
information for any activity other than the particular transaction. And 
finally, the privacy policy must clearly state how any information, 
collected information will be shared or transferred to an external 
company or third party.
  While my legislation gives consumers more information and control 
over how they use the Internet, I have also included a provision that 
will hold e-commerce companies to their privacy policies.
  With insolvency of many dot-com companies, oftentimes the only 
tangible asset left to satisfy creditors is a consumer's transaction 
and personal information.
  The global use of the Internet is beneficial only so long as the 
information traveling through cyberspace remains private. Consumers 
will pull back from this burgeoning information and commerce tool if 
they believe their privacy is being invaded.
  While I understand there are many differing approaches to the use of 
Internet privacy, I believe this legislation addresses a critical 
component of Internet privacy debate; and I look forward in working 
with this Congress, Mr. Speaker, also to make sure that our 
constituents have that privacy that they expect and also that they will 
think they have.

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