{"id":4757,"date":"2012-07-03T16:30:02","date_gmt":"2012-07-03T23:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/?p=4757"},"modified":"2014-04-20T23:56:00","modified_gmt":"2014-04-21T06:56:00","slug":"mozilla-testifies-at-us-senate-commerce-hearing-on-do-not-track","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/blogarchive\/blog\/2012\/07\/03\/mozilla-testifies-at-us-senate-commerce-hearing-on-do-not-track\/","title":{"rendered":"Mozilla Testifies at US Senate Commerce Hearing on Do Not Track"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Thursday, Mozilla participated in the US Senate Commerce Committee hearing on Do Not Track. The purpose of the hearing was to explore whether voluntary self-regulation efforts of the ad industry are sufficient to negate the need for legislative action. In addition to Alex Fowler who represented Mozilla, the Committee heard from Peter Swire, law professor and privacy expert from Ohio State University, Berin Szoka from TechFreedom, and Bob Liodice who represented the Digital Advertising Association. The complete testimony of the witnesses can be found here<\/a> and a video archive of the hearing is available online.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The witnesses provided a divergence of opinions. The DAA representative maintained that the current About Ads opt-out icon system<\/a> is sufficient and that regulation was not necessary. Professor Swire argued that without the potential threat of regulation, privacy protections receive insufficient industry attention. Mr. Szoka maintained that existing regulations were sufficient.<\/p>\n

The questions from the Chairman and Committee members showed a similar divergence. Two dominant themes were expressed: i) concern that consumer online privacy is not sufficiently protected; and ii) concern that regulation could adversely impact the online ad economic ecosystem.<\/p>\n

Mozilla took the position that:<\/p>\n