Senate Commerce to Revisit National Privacy Legislation

(Image credit: N/A)

The Senate Commerce Committee has lined up a quartet of former Federal Trade Commissioners, including three former chairs, to talk about federal privacy legislation.

Related: FTC's Simons Says Facebook Settlement Was Best Outcome Given Limited Authority

The FTC has principal authority over online privacy enforcement, but that is confined to conduct that is anticompetitive or violates expressed policies on protecting data.

The hearing, aptly titled "Revisiting the Need for Federal Data Privacy Legislation," will be held Sept.23 at 10 a.m.

Related: Senate Dems Propose Privacy Principles

Witnesses will be former commissioner Julie Brill and former chairs William Kovacic and Jon Leibowitz, and former acting chair Maureen Ohlhausen.

There is bipartisan Hill support, as well as industry support, for some form of privacy legislation. But what form that takes continues to divide legislators along party lines. 

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.