Google, Microsoft, Intel, eBay, HP, Oracle and Sun are amongst
the signatories to a statement calling for personal information to
be protected across the US. Non-profit lobby group the Center for
Democracy and Technology organised the companies into the Consumer
Privacy Legislative Forum.
"The time has come for a serious process to consider
comprehensive harmonized federal privacy legislation to create a
simplified, uniform but flexible legal framework," said the CPL
Forum's statement. "The legislation should provide protection for
consumers from inappropriate collection and misuse of their
personal information and also enable legitimate businesses to use
information to promote economic and social value."
Privacy laws are currently operated on a state-by-state basis in
the US and some, such as California's, offer considerable
protection. Central to the CPL Forum's proposal is that any law
automatically overrules state laws on privacy.
Some privacy activists were reported as having concerns that the
stricter state laws could be diluted by a bill that is likely to be
weaker in order to gain national approval.
"In principle, such legislation would address businesses
collecting personal information from consumers in a transparent
manner," said the Forum statement. "Because a national standard
would pre-empt state laws, a robust framework is warranted."
Breaches of digital privacy are becoming increasingly common as
more and more business and government processes are carried out on
computers. Laptop loss has exposed data on customers and employees
from a wide range of companies, including Sun, IBM, Cisco, BP,
Nokia and several US Government departments. The disclosure of some
of these losses has in some cases only come about because of
California's existing privacy law.
The Forum first met last winter when it comprised the CDT eBay,
HP and Microsoft as well as an Ohio University academic.
