christopher wolf is part of the privacy management here in washington and he's founder and co-chair of the privacy forum. he was lead author on privacy law and has offered numerous publications on privacy. he received his a.b. from boden college. i want to thank all of you for being here today. and we'll start with mr. hyman. >> thank you for the opportunity to testify today on the video privacy protection act. my name is david hyman i have served with netflix since 2002. \s >> while it's early in the innovation process, we've seen strong consumer application with more than half a million subscribers outside of the united states connected with facebook. we have not elected to offer our facebook application base of ambiguities in the privacy protection act. unlike most federal privacy statutes, it could be read to offer explicit consent to authorize disclosure on information that they so desire to share. the friction places a drag on social innovation that is not present in any other median, including music, books, and articles. recognizing this, the house recently passed by partisan bi

christopher wolfe is the director of the privacy and information practice here in washington. and he also the founder and cochair of the future of privacy forum. he was the editor and lead author of the practicing law institutes first treatis on privacy law and has authored many publications on privacy. he received his jd from washington and lee university and his a.d.from boden college. thank you for all being here today and we will start with mr. heiman. >> thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today to video privacy protection act. my name the david heimann. i have served as the general council of netflix since 2002. a time when streami videing vid more the topic in a room. how far we have come in a short period of time. today's hearing is the testimony to the power innovation of our internet economy netflix was a dvd by mail service at the st t start. we saw an opportunity to use the internet to discovery movies that consumers would love and provide opportunities for distributes. the popularity of the dvd by mail service grew. but we continued to research and

>> thank you, my name is christopher wolf and i'm a privacy lawyer. i'm also a privacy advocate. as part of my pro bono work, i won a case against the government and advise on privacy guidelines, epic advisory board and i founded and co-chair a think tank with advisory board members from businesses focused on practical ways to advance privacy. i'm pleased that mr. mcgeveran is a member of that board. privacy is about control. it's to put choices and decisions in the hands of informed consumers. with the advent of video streaming and social sharing, the video privacy protection act stands in the way of viewers exercising control and limits free expression. the vppa was designed to prevent prying into people's rental history. it was not to dictate how they share. indeed, the multiple purpose was to give control and choice to consumers, to let the consumers decide whether and how to share the video watching information. in 1988 when the vppa was enacted, no one dreamed of streaming video and social sharing. so when that preinternet law is applied to the world of online video and soc

my name is christopher wolfe. i'm a privacy advocate. as part of my work i won a leading case against the gocht f -- the government for violating a privacy act. and i founded and cochaired a think tank with advisory board members from business, consumer advocacy. fundamentally, privacy is about control. indeed a principal goal of privacy law is to put choices and decisions in the hands of informed consumers with the advent of video streaming and social sharing the protection act stands in the way today of the consumer's exercising control and limits their choices and even limits free expression. the vppa enacted a quarter of a century ago was designed to prevent prying into consumer's rental history. indeed the purpose was to give control and choice to consumers. to let the consumers decide whether and how to share their video watching information. in 1988 when the vppa was put in place, no one dreamed of social sharing and streaming, so when that law is read in this medium, it can frustrate the consumer. for many people, automatic shari