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Calls for a federal privacy law

The dominant search advertising company may have plenty of ways to get ads in front of Internet users, but they say deep-packet inspection isn't in their arsenal.

Legislators on Capitol Hill recently expressed a renewed interest in the privacy of the online browsing habits of citizen. A House Committee sent a letter to technology companies and media networks asking how they track their customers for ad purposes.

As far as Google is concerned, it has nothing to worry about from closer federal scrutiny. The company responded to the House letter and posted that response online, as the Google Public Policy blog said.

"We addressed the committee's questions by describing how our advertising products work and we reiterated our support for a comprehensive federal privacy law and self-regulation by online advertising companies," Google's Pablo Sanchez, senior privacy counsel, said on the blog.

In their letter, Google said it does not deliver advertising based on deep-packet inspection. Google also called for a federal privacy law, along with continued support for the online ad industry's self-policing of consumer privacy.

The online ad industry may not be as enthused about a federal privacy law, given the additional work complying with such legislation may entail. A bigger player like Google may more easily absorb the costs of such compliance as a cost of doing business.