PAB Clinton Adviser: Internet, Regulate Thyself

From: Sascha Ignjatovic (sascha@isoc.vienna.org)
Date: Thu Feb 19 1998 - 04:01:35 PST


http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19980218S0011

Clinton Adviser: Internet, Regulate Thyself
                    (02/18/98; 6:38 p.m. EST)
                    By John Borland, Net Insider

                    A senior technology adviser renewed the Clinton
                    administration's call for self-regulation in online
                    industries and said the federal government was
                    ill-equipped to keep up with changes online at the
                    Computers, Freedom, and Privacy conference in Austin,
                    Texas, on Wednesday.

                    Brian Kahin, senior policy analyst in the White House
                    Office of Science and Technology, said the government
                    is
                    betting on industry self-regulation in e-commerce and
                    consumer privacy, but needs to see some proposals
                    soon.

                    "If the private sector would come to some agreement,
                    that would transcend national boundaries, and we'd all
                    be
                    a lot better off," Kahin said in his keynote at the
                    conference, which is hosted and attended by online
                    privacy and security advocates.

                    Since late 1996, Clinton and his technology advisers
                    have
                    pressed industry leaders to come up with their own
                    proposals to regulate Net commerce transactions and
                    protect the privacy of online consumers. While the
                    private
                    sector has largely welcomed this hands-off approach,
                    business leaders are still far from reaching any kind
                    of
                    consensus on the issue. A group of senior
                    administration
                    officials warned late last month that industry leaders
                    needed to establish some momentum before midsummer
                    or risk Congress taking control of the issue.

                    But Kahin said the administration was still fairly
                    confident
                    an industry solution would emerge. "We have more
                    confidence that self-regulation can work in the
                    privacy
                    sphere," he said. "There are strong incentives for
                    self-regulation."

                    In addition to the threat of U.S. government action,
                    he
                    cited the European Union's strict new privacy
                    guidelines,
                    which are scheduled to take effect in October. These
                    laws would bar exporting an individual's data --
                    perhaps
                    even personnel information between branches of a
                    single
                    multinational company -- out of Europe to a country
                    without "adequate" privacy protections.

                    Since the U.S. does not have strict laws governing
                    private
                    use of individual information, corporations that do
                    business on both sides of the Atlantic could put
                    themselves at risk if they don't create their own
                    standards. "Europe could cut off the data flow to the
                    U.S.," warned Peter Swire, an Ohio State University
                    law
                    professor who is writing a book on the European
                    regulations. Swire spoke on a pre-conference panel
                    Wednesday.

                    To avoid disruptions in business, U.S. companies need
                    to
                    come up with privacy standards this year, Kahin said.
                    "If
                    self-regulation doesn't work, we may be in for a
                    serious
                    international problem," he said.

                    Kahin said government needed to maintain an oversight
                    role, to keep business focused on policy questions.
                    "There
                    are limits to self-regulation," he said. "Businesses
                    will
                    look at their business needs first. They'll focus on
                    the
                    strategic environment and not the policy environment."

                    But the speed of technological and commercial change
                    on
                    the Net makes it difficult for policy makers and
                    regulators
                    to retain their traditional hands-on approach, he
                    noted.
                    "In this kind of space, policy-making might just be
                    too
                    hard," he said. "Following it is too fast for the
                    usual
                    government processes, let alone trying to anticipate
                    where it's going."



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