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Techies Unite In New Privacy Law Request

IT businesses like eBay, Intel, Microsoft, Oracle, HP and Sun work together in pushing for comprehensive federal privacy law.

Twelve multinationals asked the Congress to approve comprehensive federal privacy legislation, in order for consumers to trust the WWW more.

eBay, Microsoft, HP, Intel, Oracle, and Sun Microsystems are part of the coallition of IT giants requesting the privacy law approval, as internet-based identity theft is on the rise.

The tech-oriented companies under the "Consumer Privacy Legislative Forum," wrote:

"Because a national standard would preempt state laws, a robust framework is warranted. Legislation should provide protections for consumers from inappropriate collection and misuse of their personal information and also enable legitimate businesses to use information to promote economic and social value."

At the time being, IT companies need comply with a bunch of both state and federal laws, many of which too industry-specific or hard to comply with.

Ari Schwartz, member of a public policy NGO aided the development of the "Consumer Privacy Legislative Forum," said:

"We have so many different laws because industry for years has been pushing for sectoral legislation with the mantra that different types of data need different types of protection."

HP's head of privacy, Scott Taylor:

"Consumers want it, companies need it, and our economy will be better for it."