House hearing Thursday on opting out from Web tracking; eyes on FTC report this week

The House Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection subcommittee released details on its hearing Thursday called "Do-Not-Track Legislation: Is Now the Right Time?”

The hearing is at 10:30 a.m. and will "examine the feasibility of ... providing Internet users a simple and universal method to opt out from having their online activity tracked by data-gathering firms."

The hearing addresses the growing interest in privacy legislation or regulations that curb the amount of data collected by Web sites. The Federal Trade Commission is expected this week to announce a much-anticipated report on Internet privacy policy recommendations.

Witnesses:

Daniel J. Weitzner, associate administrator for policy analysis at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration

David Vladeck, director of the consumer protection bureau at the Federal Trade Commission

Susan Grant, director of consumer protection at the Consumer Federation of America

Joe Pasqua, vice president of research at Symantec Corporation

Gail MacKinnon, executive vice president and chief government relations officer at Time Warner Cable

Eben Moglen, professor of law at Columbia University and founding director of the Software Freedom Law Center

Daniel Castro, senior analyst, for the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation