If one were to read a little into this, it would be tempting to conclude that the FTC now has three of five commissioners -- a majority -- in favor of taking a laissez-faire approach towards regulating the private sector's data collection practices. This would be a dramatic change from May 2000, when a majority insisted the agency needed more authority from Congress (http://www.politechbot.com/p-01180.html). The third commissioner I'm thinking of is, of course, chairman Tim Muris, a law and econ scholar who has argued that the Fair Credit Reporting Act was unconstitutional (http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/166424.html) and is said to take a dim view of aggressive new regulations. More on FTC Commissioner Swindle's views on privacy: http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=swindle And an audio interview I did with Swindle a few months ago: http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,42462,00.html Below message forwarded with permission. -Declan ********* Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2001 14:14:04 -0400 From: "Daniel Caprio" <dcaprioat_private> To: declanat_private Subject: Re: FC: FTC commish, Gephardt oppose new privacy laws; Echelon update Declan, The message from Rep. Gephardt that industry needs to step up and protect online privacy is the same message that Comm. Swindle has been delivering for quite some time. Dan Caprio FTC Commissioner Orson Swindle 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Room 548 Washington, DC 20580 202.326.2414 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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