In a recent Politico op-ed Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) wrote, “Online trackers claim the information they collect is anonymous and helps enhance the user’s experience. But that doesn’t tell the whole story. The truth is it only takes 33 ‘bits’ of information to uniquely identify someone.” While she was certainly not the first one to make this statement (indeed Arvind Narayanan at Stanford dedicates his blog “33 Bits of Entropy” to this topic), this assertion—that individuals can be identified with...

While consumers have a vocal advocate for increased privacy regulation in the federal government with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), they currently lack an advocate for reducing barriers to the free flow of information. To remedy this, the Department of Commerce, whose mission it is to advance economic growth, jobs and opportunities for all Americans, should become the champion of pro-innovation information policies, rather than focus on the more narrow issue of consumer privacy at the expense...