The Congressional Bi-Partisan Privacy Caucus cochairs
celebrated Data Privacy Day on Monday with a call for companies not to collect
the personal info of anyone without their consent, and particularly children.
Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Joe Barton (R-Texas) are
political opposites who are joined in their support of kids' do-not-track
legislation and greater privacy protections from online tracking generally.
"Privacy is a priority and it should not be taken lightly.
We will continue to work with our colleagues to increase privacy protections,
and we look forward to working more on this issue during the 113th
Congress," they said in a joint statement.
Their do-not-track bill failed to gain traction in the last
Congress.
Data Privacy Day marks the anniversary of the signing of the
first binding international treaty on privacy and data protection in 1981.
The anniversary was also marked by a forum Monday at George
Washington University hosted by the National Cyber Security Alliance.
Congress failed to pass a cybersecurity bill in the last
Congress as well, but President Barack Obama has threatened to issue an
executive order mandating the creation of voluntary cybersecurity guidelines.
Many Republicans in Congress, and many in the ISP community, are concerned that
those voluntary standards will turn into government mandates that might limit
ISPs' flexibility to react in real time to cyber threats.
