Do-It-Yourself Privacy: The Need for Comprehensive Federal Privacy Legislation With a Private Right of Action

This Comment will argue that there is a significant gap in federal privacy law that must be addressed. New federal legislation is needed to fill this gap and would be preferable to a mishmash of potentially conflicting state laws currently in development that will make compliance more difficult for companies that do business online. The incorporeal nature of the Internet also cuts against relying on state legislation, because it makes it difficult to determine the proper jurisdiction for a claimed privacy violation, creating complex choice-of-law disputes.