Privacy Czar Warns Regulation Is Still Possible

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March 05, 1999 (1:06 PM EST)

Privacy Czar Warns Regulation Is Still Possible

By Mo Krochmal,

BERKELEY, Calif. -- The White House's newly appointed privacy czar warned that government regulation is still a possibility to protect the privacy of Internet users.

Speaking on a panel at the Legal and Policy Framework for Global Electronic Commerce Conference at the University of California-Berkeley on Friday, Peter Swire said he will review federal, private-sector and international privacy issues created by new information technologies.

Swire, law professor at Ohio State University who earlier this week was named the first chief counselor for privacy by president Clinton, will begin in his new position next week.

Co-author of a recent book about privacy issues, Swire will work half-time for the Office of Management and Budget until the law-school year ends in May.

Speaking on a panel at the Legal and Policy Framework for Global Electronic Commerce Conference at the University of California-Berkeley on Friday, Swire said a division is occurring between the large and small companies doing business on the Internet. He referred to the large, visible companies as elephants and called the small companies mice, because of their ability to move quickly.

Big companies are subject to intense scrutiny, but the mice may be more difficult to control, he said.

"[Big companies'] problems can be addressed by self-regulation," he said. "But there are different sorts of issues with [smaller companies]," he said.

While the administration has preached to let the industry self-regulate, Swire said some regulation may be necessary.

"U.S. history is to have regulation," he said. "There are laws on the books. If a specific industry has shown a problem, there have been laws written."

Joel Reidenberg, a law professor at Fordham University in New York, said the Internet industry has not self-regulated, and it's time for government regulation.

"Time is up," he said. "The U.S. is diametrically opposed to the rest of the world where the trend is to adopt a set of standards."

Reidenberg called for the United States to adopt privacy standards developed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, an organization of the 29 largest countries in the world.