The Unsolicited Commercial Electronic Mail Act of 2001, if adopted, would make it an offence in the US "to intentionally initiate the transmission of any unsolicited commercial e-mail message with the knowledge that any domain name or other identifying information of the sender is inaccurate".
The sending e-mail address must be obvious and recipients of spam must be able to opt-out of receiving it.
The Consumer Online Privacy and Disclosure Act was introduced by the same Congressman, Gene Green, at the end of last month. If adopted, it would require web site operators to detail their information and collection practices in a manner similar to the requirements under European data protection laws.
Companies would also be prohibited from using “web bugs” or “persistent cookies” without permission to track individual surfing habits. In addition, companies could not sell their user databases without permission from the users.
Numerous spam and privacy bills have been introduced in the US but to date, only limited progress has been made.