WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation announces the witnesses for the Full Committee hearing on Privacy Implications of Online Advertising. The full witness list is below.

Individuals and businesses are becoming increasingly dependent upon the Internet for social, entertainment, research and business activities. This has created the incentive and opportunity for companies to collect, use, and disseminate data regarding online users. There is concern, however, that tracking individuals’ Internet activity and gathering information from online users violates their expectations of privacy. Individuals often are unaware what information is being collected about them, how it is being used and to whom it is disseminated.

In this hearing, the Committee will consider the current state of the online advertising industry and that market’s impact on users’ privacy. Witnesses are expected to focus on the key factors driving online behavioral advertising, the methods of online behavioral advertising employed by industry, and the protections the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) should adopt to protect consumers from unwanted or unnecessary invasions of their privacy.

Privacy Implications of Online Advertising
Full Committee
Date:  Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Time:  10:00 a.m.
Location:  Room 253, Russell Senate Office Building

Witnesses:
Panel I
Ms. Lydia B. Parnes, Director, Bureau of Consumer Protection, Federal Trade Commission

Panel II
Mr. Mike Hintze, Associate General Counsel, Legal & Corporate Affairs, Microsoft Corporation

Mr. Robert R. Dykes, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, NebuAd Incorporated

Ms. Leslie Harris, President and Chief Executive Officer, Center for Democracy & Technology

Ms. Jane Horvath, Senior Privacy Counsel, Google Incorporated

Mr. Clyde Wayne Crews, Jr., Vice President for Policy, Director of Technology Studies, Competitive Enterprise Institute                                          

Mr. Chris Kelly, Chief Privacy Officer, Facebook Incorporated