Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler says he wants lead a national crackdown on Internet fraud and start policing companies that track consumers’ online activity.
“There’s a real vacuum as to who’s policing the Internet,” Gansler said during a conference of state leaders at the University of Maryland.
“The area that I think you are going to see us becoming increasingly involved on a national basis is the intersection of privacy issues and the Internet,” Gansler said.
He targeted Amazon.com as an example of possible privacy invasion online.
“You are [Maryland State Treasurer] Nancy Kopp and you go to Amazon.com,” he said. “How many people now know that Nancy Kopp likes a particular kind of book on how to make government great? And now she’s going to start getting ads on how to make government great.”
He questioned how Amazon stores and shares consumer information online.
“Where is that going and who [now] knows that?” he said.
Gansler also serves as vice president of the National Association of Attorneys General, and he will take the helm as president in 2012 — something he didn’t forget to mention.
