My name is Emily Hackett and I am the state director of the Internet Alliance's Internet State Coalition. I appreciate the opportunity to testify today on SB 113, the privacy legislation being considered by your committee. My members appreciate your committee’s interest in this important issue but ask that you reject SB 113 and similar attempts to regulate Internet privacy and consider supporting the alternative policies we discuss below.
By way of introduction, the Internet Alliance (IA) is the leading Internet trade association operating at the state, national and international levels. The Internet State Coalition (ISC) is the state government affairs arm of the Internet Alliance. Leading members of the ISC include: AOL Time Warner, IBM, Privada, eBay and @Once.
Our primary concern is that SB 113 is unworkable and an unnecessary step toward broad state regulation of privacy on the Internet. So in my remarks I will address not only the issues raised by SB 113 but also the broader issue of Internet privacy regulation.
The ISC believes state laws attempting to regulate privacy online would be very difficult to enforce and do little to give consumers real privacy protection. The Internet is a global network that crosses all state, national and international borders. Legislation that attempts to regulate privacy online without regard to physical presence is nearly impossible to enforce as web sites and ISP’s often operate outside the jurisdiction of Massachusetts and even U.S. law. If you pass legislation aimed only at in-state companies local business will be placed at a competitive disadvantage with out-of-state businesses that would be less likely to comply with the law.
We recognize that consumers are concerned about protecting their privacy online. We believe that legislation that promises privacy protection but cannot deliver would be the worst possible outcome. Consumers need real, meaningful privacy protection. Our mission is to promote consumer trust and confidence in the Internet. We understand that if consumers fear their privacy is not protected online, the Internet will never reach its potential as the marketplace for the 21st century.
We urge you to consider an alternative approach. The ISC believes an educated consumer; empowered by technology and supported by industry self-regulation is the best way to assure that an individual’s privacy and personally identifiable information are protected from potential online abuses. The ISC believes that consumers should be able to set the level of privacy they want when surfing the Web.
If a consumer wants to be anonymous online, the tools now exist to make them invisible. Only technology can make this possible.
Specifically:
The Internet marketplace continues to grow, despite the overall economic slowdown. Consumers spent $3.4 billion online in February, a hefty 13 percent increase from January and 42 percent higher than the same period a year ago. The National Retail Federation and Forrester Research reported that the number of households with at least one online purchase rose to 13.5 million in February from 13.3 million the previous month.
And still, the Internet is in its infancy. Constraining companies that are developing software and business models to meet privacy and security requirements now would hinder an industry that is learning and adapting at a rate that is hard to fully comprehend.
The commonplace technology we use to surf the web today did not exist five years ago. And the technology we will depend on five years from now does not exist commercially today. We should not legislate stagnant solutions to evolving privacy problems when nimble technological solutions are available and can stretch and adapt as the Internet and the issues its raises changes.
States have an important role to play. We urge you to work with industry to educate consumers about how to protect their privacy online. We also want to work with you to help educate police and prosecutors about how to identify, track and convict cyber criminals. And we support tough identity theft laws, a growing problem both on and offline.
Thank you for taking the time to listen to my comments. Again, I ask that you not advance SB 113 and instead work with the Internet industry to develop policies that empower consumers to make educated choices about their personal privacy and that enable the Internet to grow and e-commerce to prosper in the years to come.