Last week, the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation held a hearing on “The State of Online Consumer Privacy.” During the hearing, several senators talked with Internet privacy activists, data researchers, and advertisers on the subject of online privacy, and, more specifically, on the feasibility of a “Do Not Track” mandate that would require Internet advertisers to give consumers the ability to opt-out of online tracking.

In an editorial today for the Huffington Post, Reputation.com Founder and CEO Michael Fertik talked about the Senate privacy hearings and why the focus on Do Not Track, while useful, may lead consumers to believe that Internet advertising is the most compelling privacy issue at stake.

In his op-ed, Fertik writes that, “Creepy behavioral advertising is the most visible symptom of our privacy-deficient society, but it is not the ultimate problem.”

Fertik explains further:

Every overly-familiar advertisement (“how did it know that I’ve put on a few pounds recently?”) is just a reminder that many companies will sell every bit of personal information they have about you in exchange for a few pennies of revenue. But the real problem is that there is such a marketplace in personal information at all, not just that it is exploited for advertising.

The drive to make money from your personal information is much larger than online advertising. Your data is packaged and sold to every bidder, not just those that use it to show ads in your browser. Legislation that papers over creepy online advertisements might make the problem less visible, but it won’t make our privacy foundations solid. Unless we follow with comprehensive privacy reform, then headlines about “do-not-track” will only provide false hope.

The issues at stake here are greater than what can be achieved with “do not track” legislation alone. Legislators must realize that, beyond Internet tracking, consumer data is being used an even more insidious way. Whether it’s insurance companies using detailed personality profiles to deny claims, or employers making hiring decisions based on online data, the real threat for consumers is how their information is being packaged and sold without their knowledge or consent.

As the data privacy debate heats up on Capitol Hill, it is important that legislators keep this reality in mind. It’s taken a long time for Congress to recognize the importance of online privacy, and it would be regrettable if the action it took was too weak to offer significant consumer protection.