House Hearing Held on Privacy
Bills Requiring Disclosure and Consent
Colleagues,
The House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer
Protection reviewed legislation today which could require
investigators to obtain consent from the target of
investigations prior to conducting lawful inquiries. HR 5777 ,
the "Best Practices Act", and a draft bill introduced by
Representative Rick Boucher (D-VA) according to a committee memo
are intended "to foster transparency about the commercial use of
personal information and provide consumers with meaningful
choice about the collection, use, and disclosure of such
information".
These bills were drafted largely in response to concerns with
the collection of information from Internet users. Members of
Congress have expressed concern about the Facebook's privacy
settings and activities of Google and others who may be
collecting data about users. Virtually all the discussion at the
hearing regarded Internet issues. Yet the bill's requirements to
provide notice and consent also apply to those who use or
collect "sensitive" information.
Here are links to the testimony at today's hearing:
Testimony of Ed Mierzinski
Testimony of Leslie Harris
Testimony of David Hoffman
Testimony of Ira Rubinstein
Testimony of Jason Goldman
Testimony of Mike Zaneis
It is not clear how quickly this legislation will come to a
vote. Representative Bobby Rush, who chairs the subcommittee,
responded to requests for more time to review his legislation by
saying he would not rush. Consumer advocate Ed Mierzinski
offered several criticisms and in his oral remarks said the
authors of the legislation needed to "start over". Most
important, there are only a few legislative days remaining
before the election On the other hand, two other subcommittees
are scheduling hearings on online privacy next week. Despite
these hurdles, Congressional pressure to act will remain strong.
NCISS spent many years attempting to overturn provisions of
theFair Credit Reporting Act that required similar notice be
provided to the targets of investigations of workplace
misconduct. We will be working to prevent any provisions of
these bills which would limit the ability of private
investigators to conduct lawful investigations.
Keeping the
profession informed,
Jimmie Mesis, LPI
NCISS Legislative Chairman
jim@nciss.org
NCISS
7501 Sparrows Point Blvd.
Baltimore, Maryland 21219-1927
(800) 445-8408 . Fax: (410) 388-9746
www.NCISS.org |
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