Senate Commerce Lines Up Witnesses For Privacy/Security Hearing

Brill, Schlick and Kerry are scheduled to appear

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 6/27/2011 1:07:07 PM

The Senate Commerce Committee has lined up an all-star government panel for its hearing this week on data security and privacy.

According to the committee, the first of two panels for the June 29 hearing will feature Federal Trade Commissioner Julie Brill, FCC General Counsel Austin Schlick and Cameron Kerry, current Commerce Department general counsel and veteran cable attorney.

The hearing, one of numerous Hill hearings already this session on the topic driven by Commerce and FTC reviews of online privacy laws and revelations of data breaches and data retention issues at Sony, Google and elsewhere. According to the committee, it will look at "how entities collect, maintain, secure, and use personal information in today's economy and whether consumers are adequately protected under current law."

Given data security and privacy legislation proposed by among others, the chairman of the committee, Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-W. Va.), the answer to that question from the committee's standpoint appears to be "no."

The second panel are no slouches either. Lined up are Scott Taylor, VP and chief privacy officer, Hewlett-Packard; Stuart Pratt, president and CEO, Consumer Data Industry Association; Ioana Rusu, regulatory counsel, Consumers Union; Tim Schaaff, president, Sony Network Entertainment International; Thomas M. Lenard, president and senior fellow, Technology Policy Institute.