I not only share those concerns, I note that threats to consumer privacy are increasing with the merging of the offline and online worlds. In short, things may be getting worse for Americans on the privacy front. An enforcement mechanism must be in place that gives consumers confidence that web sites do what they say they will do with consumers' personal data. There may be some advantage to building on industry standards that utilize audits. A patchwork of state privacy laws will result in confusion to both consumers and businesses, and thus federal pre-emption should be, at least, seriously considered.
People value uniformity and predictability.
In the Commission's first Privacy Report in 1998, we summarized four widely accepted principles regarding the collection, use, and dissemination of personal information. Choice - consumers must be given options with respect to whether and how personal information collected from them may be used for purposes beyond those for which the information was provided. Access - consumers should be able to view and contest the accuracy and completeness of data collected about them. Security - data collectors must take reasonable steps to assure that information collected from consumers is accurate and secure from unauthorized use. The percentage of commercial web sites that collect personally identifying information is very high.