Legislation on Consumer Privacy

Consumer's Privacy Bill Of Rights

The Obama Administration proposed the Consumer's Privacy Bill of Rights in 2012 as a roadmap for future legislation. The legislation was put forth on the premise that a huge portion of personal information gathered by American-based businesses regarding their customers and probable customers was still mostly unregulated (Sanders, 2012). In the past few years, the privacy of consumer information that is collected by businesses has been an issue that has attracted considerable debates and huge concerns. This is primarily because United States citizens have always valued their privacy. Actually, from the beginning of the republic, they have always been guaranteed protection against any violation of privacy, especially in relation to interruption of personal information and property.

Consumer privacy has become an issue of considerable attention in today's society because of the increased use of the Internet, particularly smart phones and the World Wide Web. The Internet has developed to become a platform for growth of businesses and innovation, which in turn help in creating future jobs ("Consumer Data Privacy," 2012). The increased innovation has been driven and fueled by use of personal information, which in turn result in the need to apply privacy principles in developing new ways of protecting consumer information in light of the increased use of the Internet.

The Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights has three major components, which also act as the roadmap for regulation to ensure protection of personal information. These major elements include control, transparency, and accountability and are based on principles of fair information practice that reflect the increased use of personal devices and social media (Kerry, 2014). Singer (2013), states that the United States system of protection of privacy of information incorporates federal and state regulations that focus on governing the use of personal information across various sectors such as education. As a result, the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights has some similarities and differences with other laws that focus on privacy of personal information.

One of the similarities between the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights and existing regulation is that it would relatively result in increased surveillance by the National Security Agency (Sengupta, 2013). While the focus of the bill is to promote and strengthen surveillance on the web, it is likely to result in widespread surveillance beyond the web. Secondly, similar to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the bill will necessitate that law enforcement agencies and personnel obtain a warrant before carrying out their surveillance. The warrant would be based on probable cause through which law enforcement agencies could read through emails or conduct any other kind of surveillance on the web. Third, similar to existing legislation, the law is geared towards promoting adequate protection of consumer's personal information online. The law provides more measures through which law enforcement can enhance protection of privacy online in light of increased attempts by individuals to hide their identities on the Internet.

However, the law differs with existing legislation by mainly focusing on Internet activity in order to ensure privacy of personal information. One of these differences is that it enables consumers to have a say in the collection and use of their personal information online (Schwartz, 2012). Secondly, it requires businesses reveal information associated with their data usage practices and force them to properly and effectively safeguard the personal information of consumers. Third, it seeks to enhance access and accuracy with regards to collection and use of personal information through giving consumers the right to access and make corrections on their personal information in practical means. Consumers will achieve this through measures that are suitable to data sensitivity whereas businesses are likely to face severe consequences if the information is inaccurate.