WebProNews

The European Union wants IP addresses to be considered personal information; the topic was discussed yesterday before the European Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee.

The issue prompted considerable debate, "From a U.S. perspective, there is no consensus over this issue," said U.S. Federal Trade Commissioner representative Pamela Harbour. Google Global Privacy Counsel Peter Fleisher said," There is no black or white answer: sometimes an IP address can be considered as personal data and sometimes not, it depends on the context, and which personal information it reveals."

Executive Director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) Marc Rotenberg disagreed. "I wish this was the case, but we are moving towards the IP6 model, for which it will be even more the case that IP addresses will be personably identifiable", he said. He went on to say that the acquisition of Doubleclick by Google "underscore the need to bring data protection into account when responsible authorities review the merger."

"We have to know who is consulting what- otherwise our business would not work," Fleischer said pointing out that the growth in Internet services offered for free, is "partly due to advertising." Microsoft representative Thomas Nyrup agreed, "The Internet would not be what it is without advertising." He stressed the need to ensure respect for the principles of "consent, transparency and security" and that "the consumer must be able to check how data is shared."

At stake for companies like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft is the $27 billion online advertising market, which is on track to double in four years.