NEW: Senator Kerry Supports Obama Online Privacy Bill

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Thursday, February 23, 2012

Meghan Ottolini, GoLocalWorcester Contributor

Senator John Kerry responded today to the Obama Administration’s proposed Online Privacy Bill with strong support.

Senator John Kerry

“Senator McCain and I have been building support for our bi-partisan approach for almost two years and I welcome the Administration’s call for a baseline code of conduct wholly consistent with what we’ve been promoting. Now let’s get something done,” Senator Kerry said in a statement.

The bill calls for a “Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights,” which will outline how personal data should be collected and used by companies across the internet. The 7-point Bill of Rights pertains to individual control, transparency, respect for context, security, focused collection, and accountability.

“It’s terrific that the advertising industry plans voluntarily to strictly and honestly comply with Americans’ wishes not to be tracked. But voluntary compliance does not replace the need for a new law. Until Congress gets its act together and does its job, Americans won’t have the guaranteed protection of industry-wide compliance,” Kerry’s statement said.

“Even though we live in a world in which we share personal information more freely than in the past, we must reject the conclusion that privacy is an outmoded value. It has been at the heart of our democracy from its inception and we need it now more than ever,” President Obama wrote in the a letter prefacing the proposal.