Consumer Watchdog Advisory: California To Hold First Hearing in the Nation Tuesday on Internet "Do Not Track" Legislation

SACRAMENTO, Calif., May 2, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The California Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday will hold the first-in-the-nation hearing on legislation that would give people the right not to be tracked online.

What: California Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on "Do Not Track" Bill, SB 761
Where: Room 112 State Capitol, Sacramento
When: 1:30 p.m., Tuesday, May 3
Who: Jamie Court, Consumer Watchdog President; John M. Simpson, Director Consumer Watchdog's Privacy Project

The bill, SB 761, introduced by Sen. Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, would give us a way to send a "Do Not Track" message from our browsers and websites would be required to honor it. It would apply to companies doing business in California.

Consumer Watchdog is sponsoring Lowenthal's bill. The Judiciary Committee hearing will be at 1:30 p.m. in Room 112 of the State Capitol.

"Consumers should have the right to choose if their private information – from shoe size, to health concerns, to religious beliefs  – is collected, analyzed and profiled by companies tracking activities online. Do Not Track is the simple way for consumers to say 'no thanks' to being monitored while they surf the web," said John M. Simpson, director of Consumer Watchdog's Privacy Project.

Three of the four major browsers – Mozilla's Firefox, Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Apple's Safari – have or will soon have a mechanism to send the "Do Not Track" message.  Only Google with Chrome is resisting. The problem is there is no requirement that a website must honor the "Do Not Track" request, Consumer Watchdog said.

SB 761 authorizes the California Attorney General to write regulations spelling out those responsibilities and to enforce them for California businesses.  The bill also provides that websites with which a consumer has an ongoing business relationship could gather information necessary for transactions even if the consumer had enabled Do Not Track.

California has often led the nation on privacy protections. For instance, the Golden State pioneered the Do Not Call list, implementing it under then Attorney General Bill Lockyer two years before the FTC launched a national list. Today the Do Not Call list has more than 200 million phone numbers and is arguably the most important consumer protection of the last decade.

In December, the Federal Trade Commission's report, "Protecting Consumer Privacy in an Era of Rapid Change," endorsed a "Do Not Track" mechanism.  Since then Rep. Jackie Speier, D-CA, has introduced HR 654, the Do Not Track Me Online Act.   But the national bill faces uncertain prospects in the Republican-controlled House. California, whose Silicon Valley companies created the problem, needs to take matters into its own hands, Consumer Watchdog said.

Consumer Watchdog is a nonpartisan consumer advocacy organization with offices in Washington, D.C. and Santa Monica, CA. Find us on the web at: http://www.ConsumerWatchdog.org

SOURCE Consumer Watchdog