Declan McCullagh

Declan McCullagh asserts in the following viewpoint that regulating personal data collecting by online merchants would hinder the growth of Internet commerce, which depends on data collection to make advertising and selling more efficient. He contends that although Internet users say they are concerned about privacy, in reality they voluntarily visit websites that have no privacy protection and freely share personal information. The real danger to privacy comes not from merchants on the Internet, McCullagh claims, but from too much government interference in business and people’s personal lives. Declan McCullagh is the Washington bureau chief for Wired News, an online news service.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. What percentage of Americans think there should be new Internet privacy laws, according to McCullagh?
2. In the author’s opinion, what alternatives do consumers have...