Despite self-regulatory guidelines announced last week by major marketing industry trade associations, advocacy efforts persist for stronger Internet privacy legislation. Jeff Chester, the executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, said the trade groups' initiatives make passing legislation more challenging, but that there's momentum in the House for such laws. One indicator of their fate "will be how quickly Congress enacts legislation for Obama's financial regulatory agency," Chester said, since that debate will make clear the congressional appetite for ramping up consumer protections. He also thinks the potential agency would have a regulatory role in future Internet privacy laws. The silver bullet for Web privacy regulation could be the prospect of portraying them as crucial to consumers' financial well-being. An individual's bank account, loan ratings, and other financial data are among materials that can be viewed online, Chester said.
