Lawmakers Draft Web-Ad Privacy Safeguards
Advertisers and Internet companies have been scrambling to head off regulation they say will hamper growth of online advertising. The pressure is expected to build Tuesday as lawmakers prepare to announce proposed privacy legislation.
More than a year in the making, the draft legislation proposes regulating Internet companies’ tactics for collecting information about Web visitors and the use of that data for ad targeting. It also could apply to the practices for collecting consumers’ information in the offline world.
The proposed legislation comes as the furor over privacy issues related to the Internet grows. Lawmakers and regulators say that most consumers experience a great deal of confusion about what information is collected about them and how it is used. Privacy advocates say such tracking has reached alarming levels.
