Few people are aware of just how much personal information is collected from their daily web activity except for the online businesses that depend on that data, but Congress, however, may soon be stepping in to change that.
According to a recent article by the Associated Press, Rep. Rick Boucher, D-V.a., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet, is drafting a bill that would place strict guidelines on the information websites collect from visitors, and the ways that information is used.
Tentative statutes in the bill may limit online marketing and advertising techniques, such as tracking web browsing habits and analyzing “shopping cart” data, which some experts say could pack quite a blow to small online retailers.
“A lot of large online retailers already have pretty extensive privacy statements.
For small businesses, it’s harder for them to create a more complex web infrastructure and to have some of the same features larger retailers have,” says Phil Hochmuth, senior analyst at the Boston-based Yankee Group.
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