Give the feds license to restrict online data collection? Try to collect sales tax from online purchases? Not on your life!
The hands-off-the-Internet advocacy group NetChoice has compiled a list of the top 10 federal and state legislative proposals it is working overtime to defeat. Enterprise Networking Planet has the details.
NetChoice, a technology trade group that advocates for hands-off Internet policies, has issued its latest list of the 10 most objectionable federal and state legislative proposals, taking particular aim at efforts to restrict online marketing activities and expand the collection of sales taxes on e-commerce transactions.
Topping NetChoice’s “iAwful” list is the financial reform bill recently passed by the House, the first time the group has awarded the dubious top honor to a federal bill.
NetChoice is lobbying against the Wall Street and Consumer Protection Act not so much for the financial safeguards that are its main thrust, but for a provision that would give the Federal Trade Commission the ability to move more quickly to enact regulations—a power that could result in sweeping restrictions on Internet marketers.
“Somehow in there is also a set of reforms and changes to the way the Federal Trade Commission conducts itself,” NetChoice Executive Director Steve DelBianco said during a conference call with reporters.
The FTC has an ongoing proceeding examining online data collection, looking at ways Internet marketers gather information about consumers and the possible privacy hazards that may be involved.