One young entrepreneur came in, talking about an e-marketplace opportunity she'd just established, where she provides a marketplace for industrial supplies for small businesses. Those Small businesses are at the leading edge of e-commerce, and there are a number of different areas where small businesses are making a major difference. One witness was talking about how, when she posted all the sites where you could buy AA batteries, some were asking 82 cents, and some were being bid at 32 cents. That means that small businesses needing to buy AA batteries can get them at less than half the price of other sellers. These services that are being provided offer, I think, great benefits to other small businesses and also show that there are small businesses that are on the leading edge.
Privacy issues are one of the great concerns that many small businesses have.
However, as I said before, Congress should be cautious when attempting to regulate a new and evolving industry. Before we go forward with establishing new general government mandates that could hamper the growth of the industry, it would be prudent, in my view, to allow the industry to establish its own standards for privacy, develop the technology that they think will assure privacy, and only if those appear to be insufficient should Congress move in. There are certain areas where Congress has moved. In 1998, the children's online privacy protection act established fair information practices for commercial Web sites directed at children under 13, or sites that knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. But before we push for additional legislation, we want to be very well informed about what is being done through voluntary standards, through technology, and finally we want to make sure we do no harm.