Statement by the Honorable Bobby L. Rush, Chairman
Energy and Commerce Committee Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection
for the joint hearing with the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet

WASHINGTON –– "Good morning. Today we are pleased to welcome six witnesses representing the wireless industry, start-up software firms, a non-profit privacy advocacy group, and an academic with expertise in the realm of privacy. At this joint hearing, which is the fifth in our series of hearings on the general topic of consumer privacy, we are focusing on the collection and use of location information about individual consumers.

"Location-based applications and services are springing up each day like wild fire. Yesterday, there was Facebook, and in the not-too-distant future we will be encountering something more akin to a 'Placebook.'
 
"Location-based services and the applications that ride on these services utilize a number of different tracking technologies, which make it easy to track the whereabouts of an estimated 100 million individuals around the world. By the year 2013, it is estimated that the precise whereabouts of over 800 million individuals will be readily discernible at any given moment in time.  Of that amount, nearly 180 million of those users will be North Americans.

"Virtually all location-based services are currently offered to subscribers for free and are subsidized by advertisers. A majority of these services generate, emit, or connect terrestrial and satellite wireless signals.  They connect independently or at pre-mapped points on a network. These signals can, then, hone in on and find a user's wireless handheld or roadway device, such as a cell phone or GPS unit.
 
"And, because these devices are typically always on our bodies or within arm's reach, there is very little guesswork for inquiring advertisers and other curious subscribers to know, or deduce, where an individual was located, is located, or what their daily movements are likely to be.  In fact, advertisers even know the identity of that individual.

"We took up the growing trend of behavioral advertising and how it intersects with privacy considerations at a prior joint hearing, which our two subcommittees held in June, 2009. To some extent, location-based services can be viewed as a sub-category of behavioral tracking in that they can quickly, and cheaply, tell advertisers more than contextual advertising ever could about someone's preferences, habits, and patterns.
"Location-based services are, in actuality, inherently more invasive and threatening to consumer welfare, and perhaps even more challenging to consumer privacy than behavioral advertising. Tracking a user's movements through a virtual world of business-to-consumer websites is bad enough. Location based services, on the other hand, up the ante by making an individual's real world location data accessible to intended and unintended recipients.

"In closing, let me state clearly, for the record, and especially for those interested consumer groups, industries, and government regulators who have been monitoring our series of hearings that, with the information we'll obtain from today's hearing, we have now learned enough to take the next major step.

"As one of the two co-chairs of our joint undertakings, along with Congressman Boucher, on privacy, it is my intent that our next hearing on privacy will be a legislative hearing, where we will discuss the "devil in the details" by commenting on a discussion draft of a comprehensive privacy bill.
 
"In coming days, I and my staff will be working closely with Mr. Boucher, Mr. Radanovich, Mr. Stearns and the minority staff to produce that draft.

"I would like to thank each of our witnesses for appearing, here, today. I look forward to hearing your testimony and to vigorously engaging in our discussion today. Thank you."

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NOTE:  Here's a link to the Energy and Commerce website for complete information on this hearing including the testimony of participating witnesses: 
http://energycommerce.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1906:the-collection-and-use-of-location-information-for-commercial-purposes&catid=129:subcommittee-on-commerce-trade-and-consumer-protection&Itemid=70