No cookies for you!

October 13, 2000 1:54 PM

No cookies for you! Representative Gene Green has introduced H.R.5430 (hopefully, they'll have the text up soon), which would control collection of personal data over the net. I guess this is a backlash from some companies' policies, but does it go too far?
posted by Aaaugh! (4 comments total)

"Consumers do not want their personal information tracked," Green stated.. "It's like going through a shopping mall and having someone follow you around making note of anything that you buy. We wouldn't tolerate it in this manner, why should we put up with it online."

Of course people do follow you around at malls, as this book explains
posted by owillis at 2:01 PM on October 13, 2000

This is all about misinformation. I use cookies here, heck everyone does it all the time, for convienient purposes. That's what they were designed for.

But ad companies utilizing cross site, 3rd party cookies is what the real problem is. However, ad companies love to track users and purchases (your visa card leaves a trail everyone can follow). Good luck getting them to stop, and still letting good cookie use continue.
posted by mathowie at 2:41 PM on October 13, 2000

I may not want someone keeping track of where I go online, but as an educated consumer I am empowered to prevent that from happening with a few clicks. Lawmakers need to keep their hands off this kinda stuff, it will just lead us into the mess that they have made DC into. I bet if you sat down with this guy to have a conversation about the web he would have no idea what he is talking about..."Well young man I don't know how to answer your question but you can visit my INTERNET WEB PAGE SITE at WW DOT GENE GREEN DOT COM FORWARD SLASH DEFAULT DOT HTML."
posted by brian at 2:43 PM on October 13, 2000

I want to see legislation that says that a company is bound by their privacy policy at the time the user signs up and that with each subsequent change to that policy, the user has the right to opt out. if the user desired this option, their information would be removed from the company's database, never to be retrieved (although they would still have the valuable aggregate information they had collected during the customer's use-time).

these privacy policies get changed all the time, and even if you stop buying at that point, they still retain your name, address, etc.

I'd also like to make it illegal for a company whose privacy policy stated that they would Never Share your information to any third party for any reason to sell that information as an asset when they go belly up.

do any congressmen read metafilter?

rcb
posted by rebeccablood at 3:29 PM on October 13, 2000