[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 168 (Wednesday, November 19, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2325-E2326]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   INTRODUCTION OF THE VIDEO CONSUMER PRIVACY PROTECTION ACT OF 2003

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. EDWARD J. MARKEY

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, November 18, 2003

  Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise to introduce the Video Programming 
Consumer Privacy Protection Act of 2003. Mr. Speaker, as our Nation's 
communications networks continue to grow and become ever more 
sophisticated, more individuals and industries will be using broadband 
networks at home and work. As America upgrades its communications 
infrastructure for the 21st century, we must make sure that the 
information superhighway is safe for all its travelers and this is 
particularly true with respect to personal privacy.
  As the co-chair of the Congressional Privacy Caucus, along with 
Representative Joe Barton (R-TX), I have been concerned about 
protecting privacy and closing anachronistic or technology-specific 
loopholes in consumer privacy protections for a long time.
  Mr. Speaker, it is becoming increasingly apparent that, in addition 
to the protections accorded consumers with respect to information 
gathered by cable operators, video rental stores, and 
telecommunications carriers, which are contained in current law, 
further protections are needed to ensure that consumer privacy rights 
are retained and respected on the information superhighway by other 
entities. This includes entities with access to consumer video 
information, or who are using other technologies to essentially deliver 
similar services to those covered by current law.
  This is especially the case in the video marketplace. Current law 
contains privacy protections for consumers when they rent video 
cassettes--as contained in the Video Privacy Protection Act of 1988, 
codified at 18 U.S.C. 2710--or subscribe to cable or other services 
from a cable operator, as contained in the Communications Act of 1934 
47 U.S.C. 551.
  Since the privacy provisions protecting cable subscribers were put in 
place in 1984, the Direct Broadcast Satellite industry has developed. 
Today, Echostar and DirecTV, for example, have approximately 20 million 
subscribers. Although they offer multichannel video programming across 
the country in a manner comparable to many cable operators, current 
legal privacy protections protect cable subscribers but not satellite 
subscribers. This makes absolutely no sense when one considers that 
millions of such satellite subscribers are watching the same 
programming as the cable subscriber next door. Consumers who switch 
from cable to satellite service often do not know that the privacy 
protections the law accords them in one market do not follow them when 
they switch technologies even

[[Page E2326]]

though the video services they obtain are similar.

  In addition, the provisions of the Video Privacy Protection Act of 
1988, which was enacted in the wake of a scandal involving the 
disclosure of the video rental records of Judge Robert Bork in a 
newspaper, covers video cassette rentals but not such ``rentals'' if 
they are not in cassette form. In other words, if a consumer physically 
rents a movie from Blockbuster and walks out of the store with a video 
cassette, there are legal privacy protections governing the 
unauthorized disclosure of the consumer's rental choice. Yet if the 
very same movie is delivered online or over-the-air, and not as a video 
cassette, it is not covered by that statute.
  Moreover, the digital video recorder is quickly becoming a popular 
device in homes around the country. The personal records of video 
subscriber choices and viewing habits are available to companies such 
as Tivo and Replay TV. Consumers should certainly be accorded the same 
privacy protections for subscribing to these services in my view as 
they receive under the law from cable operators today. Indeed, the 
information available to such companies may be more detailed and 
specific about a consumer's viewing habits than that which may be 
obtained by many cable operators. The total lack of any legal 
protections in this area is especially troubling given reports that 
such companies are willing to sell certain, aggregate data about 
consumer viewing habits to marketers and others. Currently there is no 
prohibition on the sale or disclosure of more personal television 
viewing data.
  Mr. Speaker, the bill I'm introducing today is very simple and 
straightforward. It merely takes the provisions of law governing 
consumer privacy which today apply to cable operators and makes them 
applicable to satellite providers as well as vendors of other 
multichannel video services, including Tivo and Replay TV. This bill 
provides essential, similar privacy protections for consumers 
regardless of whether they subscribe to Comcast or Cox cable, Echostar 
or DirecTV, or whether they also subscribe to Tivo or ReplayTV. This 
will keep our critical consumer privacy laws current with changes in 
the marketplace and advances in technology.
  I look forward to working with my House colleagues, including my 
colleagues on the Telecommunications and Internet Subcommittee and 
fellow members of the Congressional Privacy Caucus, in addressing these 
issues perhaps in the next session of Congress.

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