In Washington, D.C. support is growing for regulations aimed at protecting privacy on the Internet. These measures are unnecessary and would hinder electronic commerce. The best policy would avoid regulations and instead harness the profit incentives already driving businesses to protect consumer privacy. Polls consistently place privacy among Internet users' foremost concerns.
Users fear that web sites abuse their power to collect and distribute personal information.
Policy makers, once content to wait for the private sector to regulate itself, are now pushing proposals that would impose uniform privacy practices on commercial web sites. Several bills have been introduced to this end, and more are pending. Among the outspoken advocates of these measures is the Federal Trade Commission. According to the FTC, self-regulation has failed, and government intervention is necessary because profit motives contradict privacy interests. This argument runs contrary to Internet realities.