Technical Managers warn against deregulation of confidentiality

Emerging conflicts highlight the difficulty of the work to be done for legislators, as well as the significant risks that the legislation could entail, especially for some Internet companies that rely heavily on the monetization of massive amounts of data collected.

Leaders of technology giants, including

Amazon.com
Inc.

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and

Alphabet
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The Google unit warned during the hearing that certain types of regulations could limit the services offered to consumers.

Future battles may take months or even years to resolve.

At Wednesday's hearing of the trade commission, Senator John Thune (R., S.D.), chairman of the commission, said he sees a growing bipartisan agreement on the need for legislation.

"We have arrived at a time when, I believe, Republicans and Democrats, as well as industry and public interest groups, are eager to work in good faith to reach a consensus on a national law. on the protection of consumer data. " Mr. Thune said in his opening speech.

Senator Bill Nelson of Florida, the committee's main Democrat, added that recent revelations of online data abuse have undermined people's confidence in the Internet environment.

"Consumers are worried – do they have more privacy?" Said Mr. Nelson.

But many companies are already worried about the risks of excessive regulation by the Congress.

Amazon representative, Vice President Andrew DeVore, urged lawmakers to "ensure that the additional overhead and administrative requirements that any legislation may require actually provide proportionate privacy benefits" .

The e-commerce giant claims to use customers' personal data responsibly, for example to develop product recommendations for its users. However, these practices could be disrupted if the new data privacy regulation goes too far.

Another problem that may be puzzling to lawmakers is how to legislate for potentially sensitive information that can be obtained via smartphones, such as user location data. Its treatment under current federal regulations varies depending on how it is used, creating a puzzling puzzle for consumers. "These points underscore the complexity of the challenge," said Len Cali, Senior Vice President of Public Policy at AT & T Inc. Telecom Providers Call for More Consistent Treatment Between Businesses, Which Could Reduce Corporate Benefits Internet.

Several companies appeared to refrain from approving increased powers for the Federal Trade Commission, the agency that would likely be responsible for enforcing the new privacy rules on the Internet. Many observers believe that the FTC is currently out of date.

Another impending fight is that federal legislation is blocking state privacy laws, such as the one California recently passed. Other states are expected to follow the example of California, which leads to what industry sees as an unworkable patchwork of different legal standards.

Some legislators are uncomfortable with simply adopting a more flexible federal standard that would supersede more stringent state laws. A number of potential compromise solutions are proposed, such as the possibility of giving attorneys general a greater role in enforcement.

It is also unclear whether the legislation would result in stronger remedies against consumer data breaches that have become commonplace.

For its part, Google has focused on reassuring lawmakers that it is striving to improve its user protections. Google has been increasingly in the Washington line, partly because of concerns about its privacy practices regarding its Gmail feature.

"We recognize that we have made mistakes in the past, from which we have learned and improved our strong privacy program," said Keith Enright, Google Privacy Officer.

But Enright added a note of caution to lawmakers seeking to regulate consumer privacy. He urged lawmakers "to take into account the impacts on the functionality of services, the benefits to consumers of free and low-cost products, the future of the open web ecosystem and applications" and d & rsquo; Other potential effects on the market.

Google, which was criticized by the senators when it refused to appear at a hearing earlier this month, was also questioned on Wednesday about the company's plan to develop a search engine adhering to Chinese Internet censors.

Senator Maggie Hassan (D., N.H.) said she was "troubled" by reports that Google would consider working with the Chinese government despite concerns raised by human rights groups.

Senator Ted Cruz (R., Tex.) Asked Mr. Enright about it was true that the Chinese project, known internally as the "Dragonfly Project", was working on the development of 39, a censored search engine.

"There is a dragonfly project," Enright said. "I understand that we are not about to launch a research product in China and that we will not know it or not."

Mr. Enright added that any potential work in China should go through the normal process of reviewing the company's privacy and respecting the values ​​of society.

Write to John D. McKinnon at [email protected] and Douglas MacMillan at [email protected]