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[DOCID: f:hr159ih.txt]






107th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 159

   Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that machine-
  readable privacy policies and the Platform for Privacy Preferences 
  Project specification, commonly known as the P3P specification, are 
 important tools in protecting the privacy of Internet users, and for 
                            other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              June 7, 2001

  Mr. Smith of Washington (for himself, Mr. Dooley of California, Mr. 
    Moran of Virginia, Mrs. Tauscher, and Mr. Larsen of Washington) 
submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee 
   on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on House 
 Administration and Government Reform, for a period to be subsequently 
   determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such 
 provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
   Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that machine-
  readable privacy policies and the Platform for Privacy Preferences 
  Project specification, commonly known as the P3P specification, are 
 important tools in protecting the privacy of Internet users, and for 
                            other purposes.

Whereas consumers are justifiably concerned about their personal information 
        being used by commercial, nonprofit, and government entities in our 
        increasingly interconnected society;
Whereas Internet users, in particular, are justifiably concerned about the 
        collection and use of their personal information when they visit sites 
        on the World Wide Web;
Whereas providing notice to consumers as to what information will be collected 
        and how it will be used is necessary to allow them to make informed 
        decisions regarding the disclosure of personal information;
Whereas many online privacy policies are lengthy documents written in arcane 
        legal language that discourages Internet users from reading and 
        understanding the policy;
Whereas machine-readable privacy policies allow web sites to transmit 
        information about their privacy practices in a standardized format that 
        can be read by a web browser or other software, automatically compared 
        to the pre-established privacy preferences of the user, and warn a user 
        when the site's policy does not match with the user's preferences;
Whereas transparent notice of privacy practices and automated warnings of 
        unacceptable privacy policies empowers Internet users to make fully 
        informed choices without restricting or impeding their online 
        activities;
Whereas such empowerment of users leads to further growth of the Internet by 
        creating an environment of trust for Internet-based transactions and 
        interactions;
Whereas the World Wide Web Consortium (commonly known as the W3C), the 500-
        member international consortium that sets interoperability standards for 
        Internet technology, has developed a specification for machine-readable 
        privacy policies under the auspices of the Platform for Privacy 
        Preferences Project (commonly known as the P3P);
Whereas P3P-enabled web browsers will be available to Internet users in 2001, 
        and software for generating P3P-compliant privacy policies is already 
        available;
Whereas the voluntary development and implementation by private consortiums and 
        companies of the P3P specification and other privacy-enhancing 
        technologies is an important step in protecting the privacy of Internet 
        users and promoting the future growth of the Internet; and
Whereas the success of the P3P specification depends on the widespread adoption 
        and deployment of machine-readable privacy policies: Now, therefore, be 
        it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives 
that--
            (1) machine-readable privacy policies and the Platform for 
        Privacy Preferences Project specification (commonly known as 
        the P3P specification) are important tools in protecting the 
        privacy of Internet users;
            (2) commercial and nonprofit web site operators should 
        deploy P3P-compliant privacy policies on their web sites as 
        soon as possible;
            (3) Members of Congress should deploy P3P-compliant privacy 
        policies on their official web sites and on any unofficial or 
        campaign-related web sites;
            (4) each office of Congress should deploy P3P-compliant 
        privacy policies on any web site under the control of such 
        office;
            (5) the President should encourage each executive 
        department and agency to deploy P3P-compliant privacy policies 
        on any web site under the control of such department or agency;
            (6) any legislation relating to online privacy should take 
        into consideration the terminology of the P3P specification and 
        should recognize P3P-compliant policies as a means for 
        providing Internet users with notice regarding online privacy 
        policies;
            (7) the public and private sectors should undertake efforts 
        to educate Internet users about using the P3P specification to 
        make informed privacy decisions; and
            (8) commercial developers of software for Internet browsers 
        and other privacy-enhancing technologies that use the P3P 
        specification should continue their development efforts to 
        fully implement the specification in order to give Internet 
        users the greatest possible control over their online privacy.
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