• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, November 3, 2010

Whatever else the defeat of Congress member Rick Boucher (D-Va.) by Republican Morgan Griffith signifies, it likely doesn't mean that online privacy legislation will be off lawmakers' agenda.

Though Boucher recently unveiled a long-awaited draft of privacy legislation, his wasn't the only bill floating around Congress. Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) also proposed a law -- and his, unlike Boucher's, was introduced and remains on the table. That measure -- though similar to Boucher's in many ways -- was better received by privacy advocates and some other industry observers.

Additionally, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said in July that he intended to introduce privacy legislation in the Senate.

And just this morning, Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) vowed to keep privacy on the forefront. "I want the Internet economy to prosper, but it can't unless the people's right to privacy means more than a right to hear excuses after the damage is done," he said in a statement regarding Facebook's reaction to the news that app developers had sold users' information to at least one data broker. "In the next Congress, the Energy and Commerce Committee and our subcommittees are going to put Internet privacy policies in the crosshairs."

Indeed, industry watchers tell MediaPost that they expect Congress will continue to focus on privacy even in Boucher's absence. "This is not going to change the fact that privacy legislation is in play," Jules Polonetsky, co-chair and director of the think tank Future of Privacy Forum, tells MediaPost.

Privacy advocate Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, adds that privacy is "both a red and blue hot-button issue."