Senate shift could mean new tack on tech issues

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November 06, 2002 (Computerworld) -- WASHINGTON -- The biggest impact of Republican control of both houses of Congress, and the leadership changes it will bring about, could be on efforts by Sen. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings (D-S.C.) to bring "opt-in" privacy protections to online commerce as well as force hardware makers to build copyright protections into their products.
Hollings' legislative efforts drew the ire of the tech industry, which will be happy to see Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) return as chairman of the key U.S. Senate Commerce Committee.
"McCain is certainly more tech-industry-sensitive then Hollings," said John Palafoutas, vice president of the tech industry group AEA in Washington. But Hollings "is still a force to be contended with, and for anything to happen in that committee, Sen. McCain is going to need Hollings' cooperation."
The differences between McCain and Hollings were obvious on privacy, where McCain has previously backed an opt-out approach to privacy legislation. Hollings wanted opt-in, or customer consent.
But while the Senate Commerce Committee will likely see a shift in approach, the same can't be said for the Senate Banking Committee, which is expected to take up renewal of the state preemption provisions of the privacy protections in the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).
The FCRA allows sharing of certain kinds of data among business affiliates; states are prohibited from setting their own data sharing rules. That particular provision, which expires at the end of next year, has the potential to become the leading financial privacy issue of 2003.
In this case, a change in leadership may not make a difference. Sen. Paul Sarbanes (D-Md.), the current chairman of the banking committee, may be replaced by Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), who is also a very strong advocate for privacy protections.
"Shelby is one of the most ardent pro-privacy senators of either party," said Evan Hendricks, editor and publisher of Privacy Times. "Privacy is in much better shape there [in the banking committee] than anywhere else."
But the Senate Commerce Committee has been the key committee for technology legislation. It was there that Hollings began his effort, through Senate Bill 2048, to force technology makers to build in mechanisms to stop piracy.
That measure, widely attacked, already faced problems.

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