[Ecommerce] FTC Chairman Pushes Net Crime Vigilance, Not New Laws

[Manon Ress]

FTC Chairman Pushes Net Crime Vigilance, Not New Laws 
 
By Robert MacMillan, Newsbytes
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A.,
17 Apr 2002, 5:31 PM CST
 
Dealing with online spammers and privacy invasions requires strong
enforcement action from the Federal Trade Commission, but the agency's
chief today upheld his conviction that new legislation will not solve
any problems. 

FTC Chairman Robert Muris told Newsbytes, however, that not even strong
enforcement can possibly cure ills such as fraudulent and deceptive
spam. 
 
Drawing a comparison to the idea that even a well-equipped law
enforcement community cannot completely eliminate street crime, Muris
said that enforcement action at least insures that online crimes, fraud
and deception will not flourish without hindrance. 

"Why do we spend money on crime? Because we want to protect ourselves
from crime," he said. "We want to make it harder for criminals to commit
the crime ... We ought to focus on consequences." 

Muris, speaking at the Computers, Freedom and Privacy 2002 conference in
San Francisco, also said that the agency is taking more steps to try to
cut down on fraudulent offers delivered via spam that come from senders
in other countries. 

"We're trying to get multilateral action ... but we are at a very early
stage in the process," he said. 

He added that the FTC has devoted 50 to 55 full-time staff members to
privacy issues, and that the agency handles about 3,000 calls weekly
that report ID theft. 

"It's a crime that vividly illustrates why consumers care about their
privacy," he said. 

Muris also said that it is an incorrect assumption that he does not
support pro-privacy legislation across the board, merely that a proposal
offered by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ernest "Fritz" Hollings,
D-S.C., requiring notice of how customer data will be shared, is "too
narrow." 

He said that it would be too difficult to craft legislation that would
cut down on spam, because of the potential defense that some spammers
could mount, namely that restricting their ability to send unsolicited
commercial e-mail would violate their First Amendment right to freedom
of expression. 

Muris added, however, that he has seen a legislative proposal from Sen.
Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., that would establish new actions against
identity theft, and a subset of that, Social Security number theft. 

While the administration has not taken any official stance on
Feinstein's proposed language, Muris said that more legislation "would
be useful there." 

In his speech, Muris also lauded the Internet industry for getting its
privacy house in order when it deals with its customers, as evidenced by
a recent Progress & Freedom Foundation study. 

He added, however, that most Americans have not been satisfied with the
notices that they have received about changes to financial privacy
regulations as sparked by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, noting that new
notices should be sent out in "plain language" that tell consumers what
kind of privacy rights they can expect from financial institutions. 

Reported by Newsbytes.com, http://www.newsbytes.com . 

17:31 CST
Reposted 20:57 CST 


-- 
Manon Anne Ress
mress@essential.org, voice: 1.202.387.8030