Recent Developments Concerning Online Privacy

Washington, DC, June 16, 1998 - The issue of data privacy has received increasing attention recently. Within the last two weeks, the Federal Trade Commission has released a report on privacy online, the Department of Commerce has published a discussion paper on the characteristics of effective self-regulation for privacy, and newspaper articles on the leakage of personal financial data have prompted Congressional interest in privacy issues in the financial services industry.

Federal Trade Commission Report to Congress
On June 4, 1998, the FTC issued Privacy Online: A Report to Congress describing the results of its survey of more than two thousand websites. Although the collection of online information from children was a major focus of the report, it also examined the collection of information from consumers. Included in the sample were 125 financial sites. The FTC found that 97% of the financial sites surveyed collected personal information from consumers. The Commission expects to recommend incentives later this summer that would spur greater self-regulation to ensure consumer privacy online.

Department of Commerce Discussion Paper
On June 5, 1998, the Commerce Department published a discussion paper, Elements of Effective Self-regulation for the Protection of Online Privacy. The paper identifies nine characteristics of effective self-regulation:

Comments on the paper are due to Commerce by July 6, 1998.