E-commerce trade group: Mobile geolocation privacy bill is 'awful'

22.03.2012

The legislation would "not mean that our smartphones are going to be clogged with permission screens," Franken said when he introduced the bill. "This can be done with one simple screen. My bill does not require a new permission screen from every subsequent company that gets your location. That would be impractical. It would not be smart."

Other bills or laws on NetChoice's seventh iAWFUL list since June 2009 include a group of state or local laws that have been used to fight against Internet services, including Uber.com, an online service for finding private drivers, and Airbnb.com, an online service allowing people to rent out their homes for a short time.

Also making the list is that would allow states to collect sales tax on Internet purchases, even when the seller has no operations in the state. NetChoice would not object to sales tax collections if participating states adopted a uniform, simplified tax, but states are far from that long-time goal, DelBianco said.

Supporters of the sales tax bills say the current system, in which Internet-based sellers do not have to collect sales tax when they have no operation in the buyer's state, is unfair to local businesses.

NetChoice also included on the list a to draft online privacy codes of conduct through a process involving Internet companies, privacy groups and others. The White House proposal would give the U.S. Federal Trade Commission "broad authority" to create and enforce new privacy rules, NetChoice said.