Briefs

Sen. Ernst "Fritz" Hollings, D-S.C., has introduced an online privacy bill that would give you some control over how your personal information is bought and sold. To do that, the Online Personal Privacy Act would divide your information into two classes:

"Sensitive," which refers to your financial, medical, ethnic, religious, sexual, or political data, and

"nonsensitive," which covers pretty much everything else, including your shopping habits.

Companies wishing to collect, use, disclose, or sell any of those sensitive bits would need your consent first. For other "nonsensitive" information (such as details about shopping habits), companies would have to offer some sort of opt-out mechanism. The bill has teeth: Violators would be subject to action by the FTC and state attorneys general, and individuals could take their complaints to federal court.

See http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-886876.html