Continuing the flurry of activity around privacy legislation that we have seen over the past few weeks, the House today passed an amendment to the Video Privacy Protection Act (“VPPA”), 18 U.S.C. § 2710.  The bill would amend the VPPA by clarifying that a consumer may consent to the disclosure of her video viewing information “though an electronic means using the Internet” (e.g., by clicking a button or ticking a box) and that such consent can be provided in advance of a disclosure and continue for a set period of time or until the consumer withdraws her consent.   

The House passed a similar bill, H.R. 2471, in December of 2011.  As we’ve previously noted, Senator Leahy created a substitute amendment for H.R. 2471 that included amendments to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, and several minor modifications to the VPPA portion.  The substitute amendment passed the Senate Judiciary Committee in late November.  The bill passed today, H.R. 6671, contains the same VPPA language as the Senate version, but does not include the ECPA amendments proposed by Sen. Leahy. 

H.R. 6671 will now head back to the Senate, where, The Hill reports, it could be considered in the coming weeks.