INTERNET companies have improved privacy protections for online users, a Yahoo! Inc. executive told a US congressional panel considering whether to write laws to safeguard computer users’ personal information.

“Most advances in online privacy protection have come as a result of industry initiatives and self-regulation,” Anne Toth, Yahoo!’s head of privacy, said in written testimony submitted to a joint House hearing. “Market forces drive companies like Yahoo! to bring privacy innovations to our customers quickly.”

The hearing on industry practices and consumer expectations was held before the House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet and the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection.

The hearing concerned a debate over how companies use customers’ personal information. Charter Communications Inc. halted a plan to track customers’ Internet use for a targeted-ad campaign after lawmakers objected last year.

In February the Federal Trade Commission urged providers of Internet advertisements, such as Mountain View, California-based Google Inc., to gain consent before collecting personal data.

Closely held Facebook Inc., operator of the world’s largest social networking site, revised privacy principles in February after users complained about a policy change that let the company keep customers’ photos and content, even if users closed their accounts.

Representative Joe Barton, a Texas Republican, called loss of personal privacy “a big deal for most Americans, and it’s a very big deal to me.”

“People should have the option to prevent any kind of data collection in the first place,” Barton told the hearing. “The public calls for action have reached a deafening pitch.”

The chairman of the communications subcommittee, Democratic Representative Rick Boucher of Virginia, said in April he would develop privacy legislation.

Legislation is needed to control “powerful techniques of data collection, analysis, consumer profiling and tracking,” Jeff Chester, executive director of the Washington-based Center for Digital Democracy, said in written testimony.

 “Industry self-regulation, it is clear, has failed to offer meaningful protections to consumer privacy,” he said.

Nicole Wong, deputy general counsel at Google, said in written testimony that the company “supports the passage of a comprehensive federal privacy law” in order to establish uniform frameworks. (Bloomberg)