Conclusion

Behaviorally targeted advertising, one of the most dominant online business models, could be scaled back by new federal privacy legislation. This outcome may be a good policy from a consumer privacy perspective, as companies would be less likely to rely on business models that incentivize the collection of data at a massive scale. However, it may also have some detrimental effects, such as increasing compliance costs, particularly for smaller companies, or discouraging innovative uses of data. These issues do not have clear answers, but are important for Congress to consider as it works to develop privacy legislation that protects individuals.