Washington, D.C. –Representative Edward J. Markey (D-MA), the ranking Democrat on the Telecommunications subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, today announced his plans to introduce a bill to strengthen consumers’ Internet privacy.  When Congress returns, Rep. Markey will introduce legislation to prohibit the storage of personally identifiable information derived from a consumer's Internet use in data bases such as Google’s or Yahoo’s beyond a reasonable period of time.  After that time, the information must be destroyed.  

“Internet search engines provide an extraordinary service, but the preservation of that service does not rely on a bottomless, timeless database that can do great damage despite good intentions,” said Rep. Markey.  “I will be introducing a bill to prohibit the storage of personally identifiable information in internet data bases beyond a reasonable period of time.”

The provision proposed by Rep. Markey is the same standard that Congress has adopted for information gathered by cable companies about individual viewing and subscription habits, and it better balances the tension between the commercial operations of Internet search engines and the privacy concerns of all Americans.