CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- The dot-com bust is hurting privacy startups too.
Just ask Byron Buck, a 58-year-old lifelong entrepreneur who just can't get anyone to take his corporate privacy idea seriously.
"I've approached a number of different venture people," said Buck, who was wandering the halls of the Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conference here this week trying to find an investor. "This last year has been disastrous as far as raising money is concerned."
Buck, who lives in Warrenton, Va., says his idea is a simple one: an "e-privacy contract" that Internet firms can adopt as a standard.
"The website recognizes the user as a member of the e-Privacy Network, and the user knows that the website, by virtue of its membership in the e-privacy network, will protect the privacy of his information," according to his literature.
In response to the market downturn, Buck's reduced his asking price. "It'll take a few hundred thousand dollars to build this thing out, not millions," he said.
Privacy monitoring: IDcide CEO Ron Perry seems to be having better luck.
The privately-held company, with offices in the U.S. and Israel, is in the middle of launching two new products: PrivacyWall Site Monitor and Site Analyzer.
The idea is that a company worried about data leaks or compliance with its own privacy policy will use Site Monitor to watch network traffic going to and from its website and use the Windows program's output to plug the holes. Site Analyzer spiders the site from afar and is being marketed to consulting firms.
"There seems to be a lot of interest from security consultants as well, not just privacy consultants," Perry said. "They see it as a necessary tool."
Perry identified Procter and Gamble as one customer, but refused to name others. He said IDcide has received $2 million in venture capital funds.
Back in D.C.: A House Commerce subcommittee this week convened Congress' first hearing on the European Union's Data Protection Directive.
Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-La.) submitted his views for the record, and they were hardly very flattering.
"I must admit that I take a dim view about the way that the E.U. went about enacting this new privacy regime," Tauzin said. "The EU designed the rules and told the U.S. companies to abide by them or risk losing the transfer of any data from European nations. In essence: Do it or suffer the consequences."
Some conservatives and libertarians have condemned the E.U. rules as overly regulatory and bureaucratic. Free speech advocates have complained that the directive restricts the ability of search engines to operate and of activists to criticize corporations.
Declan's D.C. Notebook (continued)
More regulation: Just when you thought the Bush administration might take a laissez-faire approach, there goes the Securities and Exchange Commission talking about new Internet regulations.
In a speech this week, acting SEC head Laura Unger said that "financial portals" such as Yahoo Finance should be reviewed by federal agencies. (Terra Lycos, the parent company of Wired News, owns the financial portal site Quote.com.)
Said Unger: "My first question, though, is: what are the portals doing? What are their relationships with the broker-dealers they hyperlink to? What are their business arrangements and compensation arrangements? How do the hyperlinks work, and what do they look like? We're all familiar with the various factors considered in analyzing whether an entity must register as a broker-dealer. But these are difficult questions with broad-ranging implications."
Next week: The full Senate Judiciary committee on March 13 is scheduled to hold a hearing titled "Promoting Technology and Education: Turbo-charging the School Buses on the Information Highway..."
The Senate Commerce committee on Wednesday will discuss allowing states to require that sales taxes be collected on deliveries that enter the state.
