[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 43 (Thursday, March 15, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1686-S1687]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CONSUMER PROTECTION
Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, consumer protection has been a
priority for me throughout my career, as I know it has been for the
Presiding Officer. Both he and I served together as attorneys general,
and now as Senators he and I have worked to give consumers a voice
against companies that harm them through deceptive and dangerous or
abusive practices.
This month we recognize consumers in two ways. National Consumer
Protection Week, recognized the week of March 4 through 10, is led by
government and nonprofit groups and its focus is to encourage consumers
to take full advantage of their consumer rights and make better
informed decisions for themselves in the marketplace. This month we
also recognize that many of the same consumer issues affecting
Americans every day in their lives impact consumers in every corner of
the world. So today we celebrate World Consumer Rights Day.
Every day ought to be Consumer Rights Day because, as President
Kennedy once said, we are all consumers and we are consumers every day
of every year. Organizations here in America such as Consumers Union
and other consumer groups around the world celebrate World Consumer
Rights Day as members of Consumers International, the nonprofit
organization representing over 220 consumer groups in 115 countries.
Today also marks the 50th anniversary of a very special day in
American history for American consumers. On March 15, 1962, President
Kennedy sent a message to Congress calling for a national commitment to
protecting consumer interests. Fifty years ago today, President Kennedy
spoke about the consumer right to safety, to be informed, to choose,
and to be heard. These rights are the foundation of what we now know as
the Consumer Bill of Rights. The Consumer Bill of Rights has grown to
include eight specific guarantees: the right to satisfaction of basic
needs; the right to safety; the right to be informed; the right to
choose; the right to be heard; the right to redress; the right to
consumer education; and the right to a healthy environment.
Today, I wish to propose another right, a ninth right: the right to
privacy. There is a growing need to defend individual rights to privacy
in a multitude of areas. This country was founded--its basic bedrock--
on a desire for personal privacy, on the right to be left alone. It is
the reason people came to this country, avoiding unwanted and
unwarranted intrusion on their personal space and on their rights and
liberties. They came here out of a desire for religious freedom,
economic liberty, and the security of their person and property against
intrusion. It is a unique, bedrock American right--the right to
privacy. Concerns about governmental invasion of personal privacy go
back literally to the founding of our Republic and the protections
guaranteed under the third amendment when the British lodged troops in
our homes without permission, and the fourth amendment, when they
searched our homes and seized goods and property from them.
I have heard numerous complaints from Connecticut residents who are
concerned about their privacy. They are concerned about Federal and
State intrusion into women's health care decisions. They are concerned
about government efforts to combat terrorism through tracking of
individuals by a GPS or cell phone tower location. Those potential
invasions of privacy are by the government, by official
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forces. But people today are also understandably and rightly concerned
about corporate intrusion into their privacy. They are concerned about
companies crawling the Web to collect consumers' personal information
and selling it to marketers. They are concerned that mobile device apps
can access and acquire the device owner's photos and address book
without his or her knowledge or consent. They are concerned that credit
scores are being created from their use of medications, and that those
scores are being used to set personal health insurance premiums. They
are concerned about companies that are compiling dossiers on their use
of social media sites and blogs and selling those reports to
prospective employers. They are concerned because they are powerless to
prevent the distribution of their contact information to marketers who
then deluge them with advertisements in the mail and by e-mail, and
they are concerned about companies who don't secure their personal data
and the damages that result from improper breaches and disclosures with
the risk of identity theft and worse.
The Constitution was written to protect Americans from government
intrusions into their privacy. I understand the difference between
government intrusions and private sector invasions. But if the
government were treating its citizens the way some companies are
treating their customers, people would be outraged. They would be up in
arms. They would be dumping tea in the Boston Harbor. The Supreme Court
has just ruled that it is not OK for the government to track people via
GPS in their car without a warrant, so why would it be OK for a company
such as OnStar to track drivers who canceled their subscriptions and
sell that information on their movements to marketers?
Americans--many of us, and others--were questioning the PATRIOT Act
and its provisions that allow government to access records of what
books citizens borrowed from the library and what Web pages they
visited while they were there. Yet, companies are tracking consumers'
every movement on line, through dozens--even hundreds--of cookies that
are secretly installed on consumers' computers whenever they visit a
Web site. We would be horrified if the government as a routine matter
monitored pictures people take and who they interact with. Yet,
according to news reports, mobile devices and apps are doing exactly
that.
I believe it is time we protect Americans from intrusions into their
personal privacy by companies or educational institutions or others who
may not be part of the government. Big Brother or Big Sister no longer
need wear a police uniform or a badge or a military uniform. It may
well be under the guise of a corporate seal or insignia, and I believe
it is time we protect against those intrusions, as well as others. In
fact, it is a bipartisan concern. One of the few areas where there is
agreement in Congress is the need for better protection of consumers
for online privacy. We may differ on the substance; we may disagree as
to what the contours and the specifics should be. I am concerned about
this issue and I am encouraged by the bipartisan support for attention
to it. I was heartened by the President's recent call for a consumer
privacy bill of rights--a great beginning, a very positive step
forward. I believe our approach to privacy must be comprehensive and
robust.
As a threshold matter, companies that collect or share information
about consumers should be required to get consumers' affirmative opt-in
consent for collecting or sharing that data. Not an opt-out but an opt-
in--specific, informed consent. That should apply online as well as
offline. We have seen a lot of attention paid to Internet tracking and
behavioral advertising. I think we ought to protect consumers from
privacy invasions that come from the mail or over the phone. They
particularly affect our seniors. If a company wants to collect,
aggregate, share, sell, or by any other means, it should get consumers'
permission; otherwise, it shouldn't be permitted.
We also need to pay attention to the collection of information
through consumers' use of mobile devices. As we have seen recently,
some mobile apps or operating systems are capable of tracking not just
consumers' Web browsing but also their text messages, what they
photograph, who they contact. Mobile devices need a systemwide, do-not-
track option to allow consumers to control the distribution of their
information.
Finally, the consumers' right to privacy also must encompass the
right to prevent unauthorized distribution of that information. To that
end, we need to establish requirements for companies that possess
consumers' personal information to ensure they have security features
in place to prevent data breaches. Those protections must be
accompanied by remedies, by fines and penalties that make those rights
and protections real so that consumers have a private right of action
as well.
Congress is working on these issues. There have been numerous
hearings and legislation has been proposed. Having the President add
his voice to the call for privacy will only help. As with food safety,
product safety, and Wall Street reform, companies themselves are
demonstrating the need for legislation and some of them are joining in
this effort very constructively.
So as we mark the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy's call to
action, let us heed the importance of his message to Congress. He said:
``As all of us are consumers, these actions and proposals in the
interests of consumers are in the interests of us all.''
We should be proud in this body of having continued the fight for
consumer protection. It should be full-throated and full-hearted.
Americans went West to the Presiding Officer's State and to other
States seeking open spaces, economic opportunities, as well as personal
opportunities, including the right to privacy and being alone. That
American right--that American spirit--is very much with us today. It is
50 years after President Kennedy first articulated it, but I believe it
is as real and necessary today as ever.
Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor, and I suggest the
absence of a quorum.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so
ordered.
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