Sen. Rockefeller to introduce ‘Do Not Track’ bill
By Cecilia Kang Sen. John Rockefeller (D-W.Va) on Friday said he will introduce a “do not track” bill that would allow consumers to block Web sites and marketers from tracking their activity on the Internet.
Context & Ripple Effects
The idea is four years old: privacy groups first pitched a do-not-track registry in October 2007, modeled loosely on the telemarketing list. What changes with Rockefeller's announcement is sponsorship — the proposal moves from an advocacy wish-list to a Senate introduction, giving it a committee chairman's weight.
First-order effects
- If enacted, websites and marketers would face a statutory obligation to honor a consumer opt-out signal, converting today's voluntary self-regulation into enforceable law.
- Ad-supported businesses built on behavioral targeting would bear the immediate compliance cost of detecting and respecting blocking signals across their networks.
Second-order effects
- Rivals to the bill can be expected to argue the measure threatens ad-funded free services and state economies dependent on them, forcing the privacy debate onto economic rather than purely consumer-protection terms.
- Other lawmakers get a template to attach their own amendments to, making data-privacy legislation a contested vehicle rather than a single-track bill.
Third-order effects
- A passed opt-out right would shift American online-privacy governance from FTC-guided industry self-regulation toward statute, the structural direction privacy groups have pressed since their 2007 proposal.
- Persistent congressional attention to tracking practices points toward recurring federal data-privacy bills regardless of this one's fate.
The trend: Online behavioral tracking is moving from industry self-regulation toward statutory consumer opt-out rights, with Congress becoming the venue of choice for privacy advocates.