WASHINGTON, DC — Admitting what one doesn’t know can be the first step toward learning. If that’s the case, perhaps Congress finally is ready to begin learning about the internet.At the end of last week’s hearing about consumer privacy and internet advertising, Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-ND) admitted the issues aired had done little more than convince Senators “how little we understand.”

“I don’t have the foggiest idea who’s tracking [online behavioral data], how they’re tracking it, how they might use it, whether that company has some scruples,” Dorgan told the Washington Post after the hearing. “Knowledge is important here.”

The hearing was called to discuss the massive data stores that have been collected over the past 10 years by companies who employ cookies and other technologies in an effort to understand the habits and desires of Web surfers. Recent reports about inappropriate use of that information, coupled with mergers and acquisitions that have created gigantic online advertising and data-collection networks, have consumers — and consequently Congress — in a dither about personal privacy. Of most concern is the relatively recent practice called “deep packet inspection,” which allows internet service providers to determine what users are doing online down to the level of every word sent in email or instant messages, every search term entered and every page on every website visited. Critics compare the practice to illegal wiretapping.

Google, Microsoft, Facebook and NebuAd representatives testified during the hearing. NebuAd provides deep packet inspection services to online companies, inserting its technology between surfers and the websites they visit in order to develop dossiers about consumer behavior so that advertisers and publishers can deliver more precisely targeted ads to consumers. The practice may violate a 1986 federal wiretapping law, according to the Center for Democracy and Technology.

“This is analogous to AT&T listening to your phone calls all day in order to figure out what to sell you in the middle of dinner,” Robert Topolski, a technology consultant to Public Knowledge and Free Press, told the Washington Post.

Facebook’s “Beacon” technology — which tracks users’ buying habits and reports them to friends they have listed on the site — also is under fire for violating consumers’ privacy.

All of the companies assured Senators they had no intention of violating users’ privacy and did their best to protect personally identifiable information from prying eyes. Still, Google and Microsoft support federal legislation to outline the ways in which data may be collected and used.

In order to pass laws, however, Congress must understand the underlying issues. That’s where the stumbling block is at the moment. Questions with which Senators wrestled during the hearing included “What constitutes personally identifiable information?”, “Should a person’s internet protocol address be considered private?”, “Should consumers be informed about what information is collected and how?” and “Should consumers be allowed to see what information has been collected about them?”

It’s worth noting that not everyone believes federal legislation to safeguard privacy vis-à-vis online data collection is necessary. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) said he believes the affected online industries are working “quickly to try to cut these problems off before they occur.” Perhaps it’s best to leave decisions up to consumers, who could refuse to do business with companies that do not protect their information, he indicated.

DeMint also said he worries that online advertising regulations proposed by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission could stifle free enterprise.

“In some ways, we’ve got a solution in search of a problem,” he said during the hearing.