Bill Gates encourages federal privacy law

Bill Gates is pushing for a privacy reform at the federal leval. Gates, who has been a strong lobbyist through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is now lobbying for an "all-inclusive" consumer privacy and security law to be enacted by the end of 2007.

In a speech earlier this month at the Center for Democracy and Technology, Gates encouraged transparency about data collection and use, suggests that users have access to their own data, to correct said data, and giving users a say on what companies need to do if a breach occurs.

Gates, and other companies and lobbyists, are encouraging a privacy law at the federal level to overcome the disparate and uneven state security laws.

Senator Patrick Leahy, also in attendence, is continuing to pursue his Personal Data Privacy Act which would impose fines – or prison time – on intentional concealment of a breach which results in fiscal damages. Leahy notes the important balance of new technology nevelopment with privacy & security:

"I don’t want to stop the technologies, I want to protect our privacy, I think we can do both."

Read more about the Personal Data Privacy Act legislation here.

Sources: ZDNet, InternetNews.com, Computer World

Tags: bill gates, privacy, privacy act, personal data privacy act, security, patrick leahy, privacy lobbyists, national privacy act, national security act, technology