The Congressional Privacy Caucas group said they want federal privacy laws to appease concerns over what they describe as “the civil rights issue of the decade,” according to a report by news agency Reuters.
The US has long taken an industry self-regulatory approach to such privacy issues, unlike Europe’s data protection laws. The so-called “web bugs” which the proposed bill will outlaw enable marketing companies to track the surfing and shopping habits of individuals.
The announcement by eBay to change its policy also means that users are restricted in how they contact each other directly making it hard for them to cut the company out of its sales commission. However, the company said its move was motivated by concerns over the harvesting of addresses for unsolicited commercial e-mail, better known as spam.