Joe Barton (R-Texas), cochair of the Congressional Privacy
Caucus, has asked Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.)
to consider moving thekids do-not-track privacy bill that Barton and Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass), his
privacy caucus cochair have introduced.
He also says that the FCC's misnamed net neutrality rules
have not done much harm, but haven't done any good, either.
Barton said in an interview for C-SPAN's Communicators series
that he had no commitment from the chairman, but that it was at least possible
there could be movement on that front in the lame duck session, saying there
were probably not enough legislative days before the election to consider it
before that.
The Barton-Markey bill would:
"Require online companies to explain the types of
personal information collected, how that information is used and disclosed, and
the policies for collection of personal information;
"Require online companies to obtain parental consent
for collection of children's personal information;
"Prohibit online companies from using personal
information of children and teens for targeted marketing purposes;
"Establish a ‘Digital Marketing Bill of Rights for
Teens' that limits the collection of personal information of teens, including
geolocation information of children and teens;
"Create an ‘Eraser Button' for parents and children by
requiring companies to permit users to eliminate publicly available personal
information content when technologically feasible."
Barton said he thought the public was "ahead of
Congress" on privacy, as were companies like Microsoft who were building
in more default privacy--Microsoft is one of the companies agreeing to
browser-based privacy options.
Barton said Congress gained ground in this session, but is
still "behind the curve" on privacy.
Asked by Communications Daily editor/reporter Howard Buskirk
to comment on the FCC's defense of its network neutrality rules, currently
being challenged in court and which Barton voted to overturn, the congressman
answered: "How hard is it to pat yourself on the back for something that
wasn't necessary. I don't think they have done much harm with it but I don't
think it was necessary and I don't think it has done any good."
Barton said if there is a Republican president, House and
Senate he would expect them to move a net neutrality repeal bill.
