After reading about how companies like Google, Microsoft and Yahoo collect information about people online and use it for targeted advertising, one New York State legislator said there ought to be a law.
So he drafted a bill, now gathering support in the New York State Legislature, that would make it a crime--punishable by a fine to be determined--for certain Web companies to use personal information about consumers for advertising without their consent.
And because it would be extraordinarily difficult for the companies that collect such data to adhere to stricter rules for people in New York alone, these companies would probably have to adjust their rules everywhere, which could effectively turn the New York legislation into a national standard.
"Should these companies be able to sell or use what's essentially private data without permission?" asked the assemblyman who sponsored the bill, Richard Brodsky, a Democrat from the suburbs north of New York City. "The easy answer is absolutely not."
Source: CIO Today, http://www.cio-today.com