[LINK] Internet Privacy in the sights of Fed Trade Commission in US

[Jan Whitaker]

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/12/the-ftc-talks-tough-on-internet-privacy/?pagemode=print
The F.T.C. Talks Tough on Internet Privacy

By <http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/author/saul-hansell/>Saul Hansell

The Federal Trade Commission had some sharp words 
for Internet advertising companies Thursday, 
saying that they simply are not disclosing how 
they collect information about users well enough. 
And the agency threatened the industry better get its act together ­ or else.

Or else what? Well, that’s a bit harder. The 
commission has limited ability to issue binding 
regulations on advertising practices, and the 
process is cumbersome. But if the agency were to 
say that its attempt over the last few years to 
have Internet companies voluntarily bolster their 
privacy standards has failed, it could encourage 
Congress to pass online privacy legislation.

Indeed, two members of the commission ­ 
<http://www.ftc.gov/os/2009/02/P085400behavadharbour.pdf>Pamela 
Jones Harbour, an independent, and 
<http://www.ftc.gov/os/2009/02/P085400behavadleibowitz.pdf>Jon 
Leibowitz, a Democrat ­ issued statements saying 
that while they support the commission’s action, 
they hope for further regulation and possibly legislation on the issue.

What the commission issued Thursday was the final 
version of 
<http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2007/12/principles.shtm>its 
principles for online behavioral advertising ­ 
that is, ads shown to you based on something you 
did in the past. The agency issued its first 
draft of these at the end of 2007 and spent more 
than a year digesting comments. These principles 
were meant to spur various Internet groups to 
create self-regulatory standards for their 
members. And one group, the Network Advertising 
Initiative, did publish new rules.

The top recommendation was that users should be 
given clear notice about what information was 
collected and an easy way to tell sites to stop watching them.

“What we observe is that, with rare exception, is 
not the rule for any Web sites,” said Eileen 
Harrington, the acting director of the 
commission’s bureau of consumer protection, in an 
interview Thursday. “It is far more commonplace 
to put the information in the midst of lengthy 
and hard-to-understand privacy policies.”

Ms. Harrington challenged Internet companies to 
find ways to explain what they are doing that are 
separate from privacy policies.

The commission did not specify what sort of 
notice companies should give, but it noted that 
some have proposed methods that are more visible 
to the average user, such as a link right on each 
advertisement that leads to an explanation of 
what data the advertiser collects and uses.

“This is about advertising, so these people ought 
to be creative,” she said. “We know advertisers 
can get their messages across when they want to. 
They darn better want to get this message across: 
‘This is what we are collecting and this is how we are using it.’ ”

In another rather striking challenge to industry 
dogma, the commission rejected the idea that if 
an Internet site doesn’t collect a user’s name or 
other “personally identifiable information,” it 
isn’t a threat to the user’s privacy. Advertising 
companies have defended their systems by saying 
they only associate data with cookies, the random 
identifying numbers they place in the browsers of 
users, and with Internet Protocol addresses, the 
numbers used in routing information to specific computers.

“This kind of information can be a key piece to 
identifying an individual,” Ms. Harrington said. 
Internet companies, she added, “should be really 
clear in telling the consumer what is being 
collected, treat that information with care and 
probably treat it as information that can be used to identify a user.”

Ms. Harrington’s comments Thursday are sharper 
and more skeptical of the industry than my 
<http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/21/the-ftcs-bully-pulpit-on-privacy/?scp=20&sq=%22federal%20trade%20commission%22%20targeting%20advertising%20internet&st=cse>last 
conversation with her and her then-boss, Lydia B. 
Parnes, in July. At that time, they both 
emphasized that self-regulation was the best option for Internet advertising.

“We remain supportive of the concept of 
self-regulation, but it’s got to work,” Ms. 
Harrington said Thursday. “There have been some 
movements in the self-regulatory area. The 
question is, are they enough and will they have teeth? Time is running out.”



Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
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~Madeline L'Engle, writer

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