Well, thank you Sen. Dorgan. 

I appreciate your calling attention to this issue and I want to say that it is an important issue that we look at because we know that there are many advertising opportunities now on the internet, which is a good thing.

As the Senator said, it is good for the economy.  It’s also good for business to be able to target advertising and be able to have efficient use of the advertising dollars.  I also think it’s helpful to consumers to be able to find the products they’re looking for, the services that they’re looking for in a targeted way and that provides more free service on the internet, which is what we all want. 

So, that’s the good side of advertising.   On the other side, we surely need to be informed.  Consumers need to be informed about what online entities are doing with their personal data information. 

And, of course, since so many, especially in our rural areas, depend on broadband for commerce, as well as healthcare and education, people are putting more of their personal information online. 

So, I think transparency and disclosure is very important.  I would say I hope we don’t charge into legislating in this area before we do fully understand what is possible, what isn’t possible, what is helpful, and what isn’t helpful and what would help the right type of opportunities, but not hinder the overall ways that we can have access to advertising. 

So, it’s a complicated area and one that we ought to look at, fully understand, before we rush into legislation that could curb our economy.