Next Congress will take on privacy issues: Barton

What does Tuesday's midterm election mean for direct marketing professionals? In the least, it means one prominent legislator and privacy advocate will no longer be in Congress.

Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA), who authored data privacy draft legislation earlier this year that did not go over well with the direct marketing community to say the least, was defeated by Republican Morgan Griffith.

However, Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), who might be the next chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, said privacy will be a priority for the next Congress.

“In the next Congress, the Energy and Commerce Committee and our subcommittees a re going to put Internet privacy policies in the crosshairs,” he said, according to The Washington Post.

Privacy watchers also took note that voters elected Richard Blumenthal to the US Senate from Connecticut. As that state's attorney general, Blumenthal led a multistate investigation into Google's collection of consumer information and its plans for Street View.