Consumer Privacy in the E-Commerce Marketplace 2002

The author reviews 2002 developments in privacy and e-commerce, and concludes by arguing that a framework of fair information principles should govern the collection, maintenance, and dissemination of personal information. Proposed online privacy, computer security, and student privacy legislation is reviewed. The role of the Federal Trade Commission in handling privacy complaints is analyzed, and the author finds that the agency tends only to take action in cases with strong merits or where children's privacy is involved. The agency tends not to levy monetary fines for privacy violations, unless children's privacy is involved. The author reviews two landmark privacy lawsuits, Trans Union v. FTC and IRSG v. FTC, and the status of several privacy issues, including the role of self-regulation, consumer profiling, national identification, wireless privacy, digital rights management, authentication systems, and customer proprietary network information.