Congress Explores Consumer Privacy Protection: New Privacy Legislation and FTC Testimony Indicates Direction of Privacy Legislation

The article discusses the emergence of privacy legislation from several committees in both chambers of Congress in the past months, and the ongoing Federal Trade Commission (FTC) scrutiny of existing privacy practices of companies during the past year. The authors project that this growing concern for consumer privacy may well lead to the establishment of standardized data security and data privacy regulations in the United States. The article focuses on two Congressional hearings held in July 2010 that discussed the current status of consumer privacy protection and the creation of new privacy protection measures.