Finance

Companies Agree to ‘Do Not Track,‘ White House Proposes ’Privacy Bill of Rights’

White House Issues Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights While Some Companies Join Do Not Track InitiativeNEW YORK (The Blaze/AP) — The Obama administration is calling for stronger privacy protections for consumers as mobile gadgets, Internet services and other tools are able to do a better job of tracking what you do and where you go.

Consumer and privacy groups welcomed the effort, though some worried that it won’t do enough.

Administration officials outlined a proposed “Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights” on Thursday and urged technology companies, consumer groups and others to jointly craft new protections. Such guidelines will initially be voluntary for companies, but those that agree to abide by them could be subject to sanctions for any violations.

“As the Internet evolves, consumer trust is essential for the continued growth of the digital economy,” President Barack Obama said in a statement. “That’s why an online privacy Bill of Rights is so important. For businesses to succeed online, consumers must feel secure.”

The effort comes as companies have found more sophisticated ways to collect and combine data on your interests and habits. Beginning next week, for instance, Google will start merging data it collects from email, video, social-networking and other services when you’re signed in with a Google account.

(Related: Check you inbox: Google to issue subscribers it’s new privacy policies … and they’re forced to accept)

The growing use of smartphones and tablet computers adds another dimension to the tracking. Location information can give service providers such as Facebook insights into where you spend your time and, if you have friends who use the same services, whom you tend to hang out with in person.

Data collection can help companies improve and personalize services. It can also help advertisers fine-tune messages and reach the people most likely to buy their products and services, often without consumers even realizing it.

That is why the administration is seeking more data protections for consumers in a report issued Thursday.

How strong the protections will be ultimately depends on what rules the different parties involved can agree on. Because legislation to enable traditional regulation would take time, the administration favored an approach that combined input from private companies, advocacy groups, regulators and other parties.

Consumer Watchdog, a nonprofit research and advocacy group in California, said the approach will work only if influential companies don’t water down the rules to render them meaningless.

“I am skeptical about the `multi-stakeholder process,’ but am willing to make a good-faith effort to try,” said John M. Simpson, the group’s privacy project director. He’s referring to the various parties with competing interests tasked with making the rules.

Last week, the Federal Trade Commission complained that software companies producing games and other mobile applications aren’t telling parents what personal information is being collected from kids and how companies are using it. Depending on how the guidelines are crafted, companies could be required to more prominently disclose when they collect such things as location, call logs and lists of friends – not just from kids, but everyone.

The report is not intended to replace other efforts at offering privacy protections.

Apple, Google, Microsoft and other leading companies in mobile computing agreed Wednesday to require that mobile applications seeking to collect personal information warn users before their services are installed. The guidelines came as part of an agreement with California’s attorney general.

(Related: Has Google been tracking your iPhone browsing habits)

Separately, the FTC has recommended the creation of a “Do Not Track” tool to let consumers curb advertisers from studying their online activity to target ads. On Thursday, an alliance representing Google, Yahoo, AOL and other leading ad-delivery companies committed to adopting the Do Not Track technology when it is built into Web browsers, something expected this year. The FTC could punish violators.

The Wall Street Journal has more on the “Do Not Track” button:

The new do-not-track button isn’t going to stop all Web tracking. The companies have agreed to stop using the data about people’s Web browsing habits to customize ads, and have agreed not to use the data for employment, credit, health-care or insurance purposes. But the data can still be used for some purposes such as “market research” and “product development” and can still be obtained by law enforcement officers.

The do-not-track button also wouldn’t block companies such as Facebook Inc. from tracking their members through “Like” buttons and other functions.

“It’s a good start,” said Christopher Calabrese, legislative counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union. “But we want you to be able to not be tracked at all if you so choose.”

Watch WSJ’s discussion on “Do Not Track”:

Commerce Secretary John Bryson said in a briefing with reporters that the administration’s proposal not only protects consumers but also gives businesses better guidance on how to meet consumer expectations.

The proposal expands on widely accepted Fair Information Practice Principles crafted in the 1970s, when the Internet was just an experimental network used primarily by researchers. Those existing guidelines say that consumers should be informed about any data collection and given the option to refuse. They should also be allowed to review and correct data about themselves. The principles have provisions for security and enforcement.

Applying the principles to the Internet era, the administration said data collected in one context should not be used for another, while companies should specify any plans for deleting data or sharing information with outside parties, such as advertisers. Companies also need to be mindful of the age and sophistication of consumers. Disclosures need to be presented when and where they are most useful for consumers.

The idea isn’t to give people access to everything a company collects about them, but they should at least be able to review and correct any information that is used to make decisions.

The Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration plans to convene companies, privacy advocates, regulators and other parties in the coming months to craft detailed guidelines that reflect those principles. Enforcement will be left to the FTC under existing laws.

The codes of conduct will be specific to particular types of companies. One might cover social networks, for instance, while another might deal with services on mobile gadgets. A company that offers social-networking features on phones might adopt both. New ones could emerge as technology evolves.

Although officials expect many companies will agree to the new codes, allowing them to use that commitment in marketing materials, the report also called on Congress to pass new laws to require remaining companies to adopt such guidelines. Until then, enforcement will be limited to companies that say they would abide by the codes but fail to do so.

The Center for Democracy and Technology, a Washington group that advocates stronger privacy protections, welcomed the voluntary codes as an interim measure, but said legislation ultimately will be needed to fully protect consumers.

“The Administration’s call for a comprehensive privacy bill of rights comes at a pivotal time when there is a tremendous concern among consumers about their personal information,” CDT President Leslie Harris said in a statement. “While we believe legislation will likely be necessary to achieve these protections, we support the White Paper’s call for the development of consensus rules on emerging privacy issues to be worked out by industry, civil society, and regulators.”

Legislation also will be needed for the FTC to give protections to businesses that follow a checklist of good practices. Known as safe harbor, such protections would exempt companies from sanctions if they inadvertently break a code.

The report comes 14 months after the Commerce Department first proposed a privacy bill of rights. The issue was later elevated to the White House and won its endorsement with the release of Thursday’s report.

The administration dropped a proposal in the original report to create a federal privacy office within the Commerce Department. Instead, the task of convening parties to craft guidelines is left to the existing National Telecommunications and Information Administration.

Comments (33)

  • ContinentalArmy
    Posted on April 12, 2012 at 4:53pm

    Just another Obama Smoke Screen!!! They already track what you buy, when and where you buy it and how much you buy! The Internet isn’t their only tracking device, Bank cards, Credit cards, hell even Checks! This is all a bunch of B.S.!!!! I’ll buy what I want and need, whenever the hell I feel like it, it’s none of the Govt.‘s Business nor anyone Else’s!!!!

    Report Post »  
  • Carefreeflyer
    Posted on March 1, 2012 at 7:41pm

    Privacy from Whom?

    Report Post » Carefreeflyer  
  • ASE
    Posted on February 26, 2012 at 2:27pm

    I believe that publicly the WH is claiming to be a champion of on-line privacy, while secretly pursuing tracking efforts – as long as they get the data, too. I also already think that NSA DOES do tracking, or if not them, they have subcontractors do it for them – that gives them a ‘plausible deniability’ buffer to take the heat.

    Report Post »  
  • The-Monk
    Posted on February 24, 2012 at 8:09pm

    “The Obama administration is calling for stronger privacy protections…”

    That’s why the CEO of Google went to the White House and Robert Gibbs went to Facebook?
    No, they want to and are going to track us no matter what.

    Report Post » The-Monk  
  • mred33
    Posted on February 24, 2012 at 5:17pm

    This is just another way for the government to track you and everything thing you are doing. Doesn’t make any difference what they say, it’s what they mean that counts and they mean to track you in everything you do in your life. Anyone for thought police???? …………………………

    Report Post » mred33  
  • Rowgue
    Posted on February 24, 2012 at 1:07pm

    The people that think they know anything about websites tracking you because they downloaded an addon for their browser are hilarious. Your addon is about as useful as a wet towel after a shower.

    Getting tracked or not getting tracked is primarily in your own control. If you’ve got a hundred tracking cookies on your computer, that’s your fault. There are easy common sense steps to avoid it.

    Report Post »  
  • Ghandi was a Republican
    Posted on February 24, 2012 at 11:10am

    Control.. Read the fine print. This is another ‘regulatory’ authority that will morph,, as they all do.!

    Report Post » Ghandi was a Republican  
    • Ruler4You
      Posted on February 24, 2012 at 11:32am

      The government saying “it” won’t track YOU, is scant reassurance under this administration. For 3 years we‘ve seen that congress isn’t the ones writing the legislation. Socialist ‘think tanks’ are writing it.

      But obango has also enlisted the “help” of technology companies to garner the things it desires where resistance is met going thru normal channels.

      Just this week on this site, I think, was an article that showed obango and just plain ‘Joe’ stating: “Where congress fails to act, Joe and I will act.”

      Now, that sounds an awful lot like a tin pot tyrant to me. But, I digress. It sounds to me as though he either gets what he wants the ‘correct’ way or HE chooses another way. This “ISN’T” America any more when that happens in our government.

      Report Post » Ruler4You  
  • MrKnowItAll
    Posted on February 24, 2012 at 10:13am

    Did that guy in one of the other Blaze videos that had a Clyde done on him invent that Button?

    Report Post » MrKnowItAll  
  • jkendal
    Posted on February 24, 2012 at 8:40am

    It looks to me like the federal government wants a monopoly when it comes to tracking people…..

    Report Post »  
    • smithclar3nc3
      Posted on February 24, 2012 at 10:49am

      That‘s what I’m gathering from this….They don‘t want companies watching their nazis’ through electronic tracking.

      Report Post »  
  • jackbauer
    Posted on February 24, 2012 at 7:39am

    Evaluating your internet activity is like a window into your mind. They can tell what you think about just by what you click even without reading what you write. Click on Drudge, The Blaze, FXN and you are an anti-marxist conservative, a potential terrorist who’s a danger to “the society”. Click on how to videos on YouTube and the they know what you are doing by what you click on. Click on food storage, and gardening videos and they know you have food stashed and probably don’t trust government to be your savior in a time of trouble. Click on gun ads or reviews and you are armed and dangerous. I think you know where this is going, A pick-up list could be compiled that would surpass those from the former USSR or Hitler’s Germany. Times sure are a changing. Makes one want to turn the lights out on internet usage.

    Report Post » jackbauer  
  • Itsjusttim
    Posted on February 24, 2012 at 7:22am

    Well now, that‘s the way it’s apparently is supposed to work; God grants authority to the leader who gets together with other entities agreeing to let people have privacy; and the Kings are all in agreement to let people have a Constitutional right to privacy.

    Report Post » Itsjusttim  
  • Need to be FREE
    Posted on February 24, 2012 at 6:57am

    Will you please get out of my life!!!!

    Report Post »  
    • old white guy
      Posted on February 24, 2012 at 7:11am

      back the bus up. we know when the white house/obama says something the opposite will occur.

      Report Post »  
  • grannyrecipe
    Posted on February 24, 2012 at 4:54am

    I never, ever click on ads. If it‘s a pop up I don’t even look at the ad because I immediately start looking for the X in the corner so Google and Facebook are wasting there time tracking me LOL

    Report Post » grannyrecipe  
  • mingbb
    Posted on February 24, 2012 at 3:16am

    xf

    Report Post »  
    • TaraR42
      Posted on February 24, 2012 at 5:09am

      Flashback last year….Secret rush meeting with Obama, google, apple and Facebook….one by one they enact absurd privacy policy’s ….people become outraged 36 different states attorney general’s collectivly begin iquires into these new policies …. Now the WH AKA champions of transparency swoop in to save the day with a privacy bill of rights… Things that make you go hmmmmm

      Report Post »  
  • MrObvious
    Posted on February 24, 2012 at 1:44am

    The market place (including the market for free and open sourced) will add mobile apps to protect privacy, just it did for our web browsers (well those of us using FireFox and other Gecko based browsers anyway). We don’t need the governments help dealing with tracking cookies. We need their help to go after hackers in other countries, that are deliberately attacking our national infrastructure, public utilities, and major financial institutions.
    In this country we already have laws – that do get enforced; but, in other countries, many times, those same laws don’t get enforced; and, in some cases are sponsored by governments.
    We need to sanction countries that tolerate, condone and support sever hacking.
    Many times modern malware is used to gather and sell identity information, steal CPU time, and trick target systems into distributing $pam. Countries that refuse to enforce laws against individual committing these international crimes should also be subject to sanctions.
    We don’t need new laws – we already have way too many as it is.
    We just need better enforcement of existing ones (like international cyber intrusion), and reversal of the bad ones – like the RRAA stuff.

    Report Post »  
  • lukerw
    Posted on February 24, 2012 at 12:58am

    The… Great Dictator… seems to be testing the Waters of the Internet… and surprise there is no BackLash, because the Moguls are all BleedingHeart Liberals!

    Report Post » lukerw  
    • 1casawizard
      Posted on February 24, 2012 at 1:44am

      Does everyone forget the AAA credit rating that we (U.S.) have always had until 2010. Why has this been forgot? Are they throwing smokescreens all the time?? Surely not. The deficit is four times($16Trillion) as much as is in 2008($4Trillion).

      Report Post » 1casawizard  
    • 1casawizard
      Posted on February 24, 2012 at 2:21am

      Let’s be more concerned about our borders, our deficit spending, security of our country comes to mind first and only for our security for the U.S.

      Report Post » 1casawizard  
  • chicago76
    Posted on February 24, 2012 at 12:25am

    The Marxist dialectic makes all statements mean exactly the opposite of what people think they mean. By making laws on privacy Obama actually expands government power over our lives. By making laws to protect our second amendment rights, the government limits our second amendment rights.

    Report Post »  
  • Junter
    Posted on February 24, 2012 at 12:19am

    How could it go wrong? US Gov is a shinning example of thrifty spending and smart decisions. Anyone else see the cage door closing ever so slowly?

    Report Post »  
  • Dougral Supports Israel
    Posted on February 23, 2012 at 11:44pm

    So, the government offers us something with one hand. Watch the other because intends to take more than it has given.

    Report Post »  
  • dawg71
    Posted on February 23, 2012 at 10:22pm

    Only BIg brother I mean goverment has the right to stomp on your privacy rights.

    Report Post »  
  • semihardrock
    Posted on February 23, 2012 at 10:10pm

    Companies cannot track you BUT Government……No Problem…..

    Report Post » semihardrock  
    • CatB
      Posted on February 23, 2012 at 11:01pm

      Yes .. not buying it .. remember everything they name .. is the opposite of what it is .. like Obamacare being Affordable Health Care .. LOL .. no not buying it!

      OMG 2012

      Report Post »  
  • JQCitizen
    Posted on February 23, 2012 at 10:03pm

    Oh, Yes! I TRULY BELIEVE Mr. Obama is SO concerned for my privacy! LOL!

    Report Post »  
    • CatB
      Posted on February 23, 2012 at 11:02pm

      From the guy who wanted everyone to turn in their friends and relatives emails … LOL not buying it!

      Report Post »  
  • Leopold
    Posted on February 23, 2012 at 9:58pm

    I am sure there is a hidden agenda. Doesn‘t the government need to know everybody’s info in order to find out who, when, where and why someone is violating our privacy?

    Something like a watch dog? This is all just talk to make it look like they actually care about our privacy. While putting all kinds of laws and regulations in place. We will be tracked. As a matter of fact we are already being tracked. Marxism and socialism are never about freedom. NEVER!

    I was born and grew up in West Germany. You cannot even move across the hallway of your apartment building without having to register from where to where you have moved. You have to carry ID stating your address at all times. The police have the right to ask you for it without having to give you a reason. You stay in a Hotel or Motel and you have to give them your Passport.

    My husbands family lived all their lives in East Germany. There you did not know if you could trust your neighbor, friend or even a relative.

    Just wait, all that will come over here sooner or later. Probably sooner.

    If we get a NWO they have to be able to control everybody’s move and whereabouts. How else can you rule a One World Government. The power has to be absolute.

    Sure, they have only our best interessed at heart. Please, gimme a break.

    Report Post »  
  • bmel
    Posted on February 23, 2012 at 9:48pm

    Do you really think that Google isn’t giving the Annionted one all the info he asks for? We have no one holding Holder accountable either. false emails fraud guns for the cartels what the hell makes you think Obama will follow any order besides the Soros edicts??

    Report Post »  
  • MYHEROISRON
    Posted on February 23, 2012 at 9:37pm

    Any proposal from the federal government is always a bad idea …

    Report Post » MYHEROISRON  

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