Fergie's Tech Blog

AOL Gaffe Draws Capitol Hill Rebuke

Declan McCullagh writes on C|Net News:

AOL's recent privacy gaffe that exposed users' search histories may breathe new life into a proposal to slap strict rules on what data Internet companies may collect.

Rep. Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, said Wednesday that AOL's disclosure of the search habits of more than 650,000 of its users demonstrates that new laws are necessary. AOL has apologized for the disclosure.

"We must stop companies from unnecessarily storing the building blocks of American citizens' private lives," Markey said.

Markey's proposal, called the Eliminate Warehousing of Consumer Internet Data Act (EWOCID), was introduced in February after Google's courtroom tussle over search records with the U.S. Department of Justice.

posted by Fergie @ 8/09/2006 08:56:00 PM