Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) is hosting a tech roundtable on online privacy June 29 in New York.
She signaled last month that she would conduct a series of roundtables on tech issues. This one, co-hosted by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), comes the same day that the Senate Commerce Committee will be holding an online privacy hearing back in Washington.
A number of bills on issues inc luding do-not-track and data security have been introduced, while the Commerce Department, the administration and the Federal Trade Commission are currently reviewing existing online privacy protections and encouraging self-regulation by the industry.
"Online commerce is reaching a tipping point as consumers become more and more concerned about their private data," Blackburn said in a statement. "I hope to hear how the tech industry is approaching this problem, what Washington can do to help and where Washington needs to get out of the way."
The IAB does not want the scales tipping toward government regulation of online advertising. In fact, one of its core goals is to "fend off adverse legislation and regulation." IAB comprises more than 500 companies that it says represent 86% of online advertising sales. Board members include representatives from Yahoo! and NBC Universal.
Roundtable participants at the June 29 session will include NBCU, BET Networks, Verizon and Google.
