Also, he said Congress and the Administration must remain vigilant and should not foreclose the possibility of legislative and regulatory action if we cannot make swift and significant additional progress. He also said the Commission first articulated the elements of these four practices just one year ago and that given the recent vintage of these elements, he believes industry has made substantial progress. Also, if industry wants to have the freedom to adopt privacy policies in response to market incentives and not government regulation, he encouraged industry to continue to lead the way. Today, they require all new and renewing licenses to be in accordance with FTC standards for fair information practices. The Internet presents new challenges and opportunities for the protection of privacy.
Privacy is a complex value.
They believe Congress should focus on ensuring that individuals' long held expectation for autonomy, fairness and confidentiality are respected as daily activities move online. Self-regulatory efforts designed for the online environment are gradually moving closer to the standards for privacy protection set out in the Code of Fair Information Practices. She said from her standpoint that's too radical a step, both unnecessary and not well informed. Mr. Lucas of PrivaSeek said in light of the emergence of viable and innovative technological solutions, as well as the increased adherence by Web sites to self-regulatory programs, they believe that a legislative mandate governing online privacy protection would be premature at this time. He said considerable time, effort, and resources have been devoted to the development of new technologies designed to safeguard consumer data, both in terms of privacy enhancing products, as well as certification tools such as digital authentication technology.