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The Great Debate: National Privacy Legislation

Explore the Pros and Cons of National Privacy Legislation at the IAPP National Summit 2006, March 8-10, in Washington, D.C.

Register for the Summit by Feb. 10 to Receive the Early-Bird Rate

The IAPP today announced the addition of a new panel to debate the concept of federal privacy legislation -- a provocative topic that has caught the attention of industry and consumer groups.

The debate will follow the keynote address from Microsoft's Brad Smith, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, March 9, at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C.

"A comprehensive approach to privacy that applies across the country would give all consumers strong privacy and security protection, and would set clear standards for businesses that will allow commerce to flourish," Smith said. "As such, Microsoft believes broad federal legislation that preempts the hundreds of state regulations needs to be developed to address this issue."

Not everyone agrees. Howard Beales, of George Washington University, was a senior member of the FTC during the tenure of Chairman Tim Muris. During that time, the FTC took a "harm"-based approach to privacy -- requesting legislation and focusing enforcement on those areas where consumer harm actually occurred.

Panel Moderator Christine A. Varney, a partner at Hogan & Hartson and a former FTC commissioner, said she plans to pose this question to the panelists: "Is this an idea whose time has finally come -- is this dog ready to hunt?"

Varney noted that the debate over whether national privacy legislation is needed in the U.S. has been raised and mulled several times over the years, dating back to 1995.

The IAPP National Summit 2006 will draw privacy professionals from around the U.S., Canada and other countries to attend the largest and most anticipated privacy conference. Topics that will be covered in-depth include ID theft and the U.S. and global legislative response, generational privacy and outsourcing, among others.

Smith is one of five keynote speakers. He will be joined by FTC Commissioner Pamela Jones Harbour; Jonathan Zittrain, Co-Founder of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School; Dr. David J. Brailer, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, who heads President Bush's efforts to deploy widespread health-information technology within the next 10 years; Christophe Pallez, Secretaire general de la CNIL, France, who has served as head of the French data protection authority since September 2005.

What:    IAPP National Summit 2006

When:    March 8-10, 2006

Where:   Omni Shoreham Hotel
         2500 Calvert St., NW
         Washington, D.C.  20008

Media wishing to cover the Summit should send a request to ann.donlan@privacyassociation.org. For more information or to register for the Summit, visit www.privacyassociation.org.

ABOUT THE IAPP

The International Association of Privacy Professionals is the world's largest association of privacy professionals with more than 2,000 members globally. The IAPP helps define and support the privacy profession through networking, education and certification. For more information on the IAPP, visit https://www.privacyassociation.org/.

Distributed by Market Wire