The Washington Post is carrying a story and video of Pam Horan, president of the Online Publishers Association, discussing the draft privacy bill that Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) and Rep. Cliff Sterns (R-Fla.) introduced last week. (See Sunbelt Blog pieces here, and here.) Cecilia Kang on her Post Tech blog asked Horan to post one question to Boucher about the bill.
Horan said the Online Advertisers biggest concern is how the ultimate wording of the bill will define “precise geolocation information”
Information about a person’s location falls is in the category of “sensitive information” in the bill and advertisers would not be allowed to collect that data unless users opted in.
Horan said with users buying more portable devices such as the iPad, advertisers would like to be able to deliver coupons and ads for businesses near them using global positioning technology.
“This can all be done in a way that is non-identifiable and is a huge opportunity for us,” Horan said.
Story and video here: “Online publishers question Boucher privacy bill”
According to Hillicon, the technology blog of The Hill web site, Boucher said today that the bill is not an attempt to inhibit responsible targeted advertising.
At this point the draft bill requires companies to disclose the fact that they collect information from consumers and port the information into Web ads. Those that fail to make proper disclosure could face penalties from the Federal Trade Commission.
The next draft of the bill could be complete by the middle of next month.
The Information Law Group posted a great analysis of the draft bill today here: “Breaking Down the Boucher Bill”
Tom Kelchner