IV
107TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. RES. 159
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that machine-readable
privacy policies and the Platform for Privacy Preferences Project speci-
fication, commonly known as the P3P specification, are important tools
in protecting the privacy of Internet users, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JUNE 7, 2001
Mr. SMITH of Washington (for himself, Mr. DOOLEY of California, Mr.
MORAN of Virginia, Mrs. TAUSCHER, and Mr. LARSEN of Washington)
submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee
on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on House
Administration and Government Reform, for a period to be subsequently
determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provi-
sions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that
machine-readable privacy policies and the Platform for
Privacy Preferences Project specification, commonly
known as the P3P specification, are important tools in
protecting the privacy of Internet users, and for other
purposes.
Whereas consumers are justifiably concerned about their per-
sonal information being used by commercial, nonprofit,
and government entities in our increasingly inter-
connected society;
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Whereas P3P-enabled web browsers will be available to Inter-
net users in 2001, and software for generating P3P-com-
pliant privacy policies is already available;
Whereas the voluntary development and implementation by
private consortiums and companies of the P3P specifica-
tion and other privacy-enhancing technologies is an im-
portant step in protecting the privacy of Internet users
and promoting the future growth of the Internet; and
Whereas the success of the P3P specification depends on the
widespread adoption and deployment of machine-readable
privacy policies: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Rep-
resentatives that—
(1) machine-readable privacy policies and the
Platform for Privacy Preferences Project specifica-
tion (commonly known as the P3P specification) are
important tools in protecting the privacy of Internet
users;
(2) commercial and nonprofit web site operators
should deploy P3P-compliant privacy policies on
their web sites as soon as possible;
(3) Members of Congress should deploy P3P-
compliant privacy policies on their official web sites
and on any unofficial or campaign-related web sites;
(4) each office of Congress should deploy P3P-
compliant privacy policies on any web site under the
control of such office;
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(5) the President should encourage each execu-
tive department and agency to deploy P3P-compliant
privacy policies on any web site under the control of
such department or agency;
(6) any legislation relating to online privacy
should take into consideration the terminology of the
P3P specification and should recognize P3P-compli-
ant policies as a means for providing Internet users
with notice regarding online privacy policies;
(7) the public and private sectors should under-
take efforts to educate Internet users about using
the P3P specification to make informed privacy deci-
sions; and
(8) commercial developers of software for Inter-
net browsers and other privacy-enhancing tech-
nologies that use the P3P specification should con-
tinue their development efforts to fully implement
the specification in order to give Internet users the
greatest possible control over their online privacy.
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