Technology evangelist O'Reilly worried about consumer privacy 'witch hunt'

Digital publisher and technology evangelist Tim O'Reilly on Wednesday told The Hill he's worried about the implications of lawmakers getting involved in consumer privacy.

They may not consider the potential impact on future innovation, he said: "There's a witch hunt around consumer privacy."

O'Reilly said there is a "real risk that somebody in Congress could get involved" in passing heavy-handed privacy legislation without considering that many consumers are willing to make tradeoffs with regards to sharing their private information.

For example, he said most users are OK with the online payment company Paypal sharing their name and address on eCommerce sites so they don't have to type them in repeatedly.

"That's a pretty benign, useful and consumer-friendly use of private data Paypal has access to," he said.

There are several distinct efforts to craft consumer privacy legislation currently underway in Congress that would likely apply to online transactions. Democrats on the Senate Commerce Committee unveiled legislation earlier this month that would introduce security requirements and require notification of consumers in the event of a breach.

Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) is reportedly also working on comprehensive privacy legislation. In addition, Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Bob Bennett (R-Utah) have championed an identity-theft bill for years and Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) introduced his own privacy bill last month that would require companies to obtain customers' consent before sharing their data.

O'Reilly said he has spoken recently with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg about how to frame some reasonable uses of private data so the public can understand situations where sharing the information makes sense. Zuckerberg has said in the past that when given the choice, most Facebook users opt to share more information about themselves, not less.