to individuals. (7) As of the day before the date of enactment of this Act, many collectors of personally identifiable information have yet to provide baseline fair information practice protections for individuals. (8) The ease of gathering and compiling personal information on the Internet and off, both overtly and surreptitiously, is becoming increasingly efficient and effortless due to advances in technology which have provided information gatherers the ability to compile seamlessly highly detailed personal histories of individuals. (9) Personal information requires greater privacy protection than is available on the day before the date of enactment of this Act. Vast amounts of personal information, including sensitive information, about individuals are collected on and off the Internet, often combined and sold or otherwise transferred to third parties, for purposes unknown to an individual to whom the personally identifiable information pertains. (10) Toward the close of the 20th century, as individuals' personal information was increasingly collected, profiled, and shared for commercial purposes, and as technology advanced to facilitate these practices, Congress enacted numerous statutes to protect privacy. (11) Those statutes apply to the Government, telephones, cable television, e-mail, video tape rentals, and the Internet (but only with respect to children and law enforcement requests). (12) As in those instances, the Federal Government has a substantial interest in creating a level playing field of protection across all collectors of personally identifiable information, both in the United States and abroad. (13) Enhancing individual privacy protection in a balanced way that establishes clear, consistent rules, both domestically and internationally, will stimulate commerce by instilling greater consumer confidence at home and greater confidence abroad as more and more entities digitize personally identifiable information, whether collected, stored, or used online or offline. 103. Definitions (a) In