Speaking for the OPA, Christine Varney told the House Subcommittee on Courts and Intellectual Property that the results of a recent survey conducted by Georgetown University professor Dr. Mary Culnan revealed impressive success by the private sector in making respect for privacy online the norm.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) last year conducted a survey of privacy policies and the Georgetown survey was conducted at the FTC's request to provide a snapshot of the status of privacy protection online.

Ms. Varney, a former commissioner with the FTC, said that last year's FTC Web survey found that only 14 percent of all Web sites had posted policies informing consumers of what information was being collected, why and how it would be used. This year, in a sample drawn from the Net's 7,500 most popular sites, nearly 66 percent of the sites had posted privacy policies.

"The leap from 14 to 65.7 percent shows that privacy policies are proliferating," she said. "We believe that when American consumers see more than two-thirds of the Internet's most heavily trafficked Web sites posting privacy policies, it is possible to talk about respect for consumer privacy becoming the norm online. It is a remarkable change."

Ms. Varney noted that the results of the survey of the Web's Top 100 most popular sites were even better -- 94 percent now privacy disclosures, up from 71 percent last year. The unduplicated reach of these Top 100 sites is 94.4 percent, while the reach of the larger sample is 98.8 percent.

But, she noted, the survey also showed that much work remains to be done. The private sector must work to increase the number of Web sites posting privacy policies and it must renew efforts to make sure that all privacy policies provide consumers with the information they need to make informed decisions about how much information to share, with which sites and when.

Credible privacy policies that meet the guidelines set out by the Online Privacy Alliance must tell consumers what is being collected, why, provide a choice in how the data is used and contain information on access, security and recourse. The policies must be easy to find, easy to read and easy to understand.

"Consumers now have to take the initiative and use the tools available," she said. "They must look for privacy policies, read them and make the choices offered. They must remember on the digital street, as they do on Main Street, to think before sharing personal information."

Ms. Varney said new legislation was not needed since the private sector was taking the required steps to protect privacy. But she urged the government to keep the spotlight on this issue by prosecuting bad actors.

"Recent actions by the FTC show that government has the laws and rules to police privacy online and we strongly encourage them to do so. We believe the government has a critically important role to play, but we do not believe legislation is needed because the private sector already is addressing the issue quickly and effectively," she said.