Online Privacy Staged for a Showdown Says Press Reports
The NY Times is reporting that after “do not call” lists became popular, more than 90 percent of people who signed up reported fewer annoying telemarketing calls. Now, privacy advocates are pushing for a similar “do not track” feature that would let Internet users tell Web sites to stop surreptitiously tracking their online habits and collecting clues about age, salary, health, location and leisure activities.
Jon Leibowitz said his Federal Trade Commission was studying a “do not track” rule.
David C. Vladeck, of the F.T.C., said the agency would keep its focus on enforcing the law.
That proposal and other ideas to protect online privacy are setting up a confrontation among Internet companies, federal regulators, the Obama administration and Congress over how strict any new rules should be.
In the next few weeks, both the Federal Trade Commission and the Commerce Department are planning to release independent, and possibly conflicting, reports about online privacy.
Top Commerce officials have indicated that the department favors letting the industry regulate itself, building on the common practice of user agreements where companies post their privacy policies online or consumers check a box agreeing to abide by them.
Top trade commission officials, however, have indicated they are exploring a stricter standard, one that requires a “do not track” option on a Web site or browser similar to the “do not call” lists.
The two agencies have even tangled over which will release its report first, a decision that could set the tone for the clash to follow. People close to the talks say that, at least for now, the Commerce Department has been given the nod, provided it can complete its report soon.
Consumer advocates worry that the competing agendas of economic policy makers in the Obama administration, who want uniform international standards, and federal regulators, who are trying to balance consumer protection and commercial rights, will neglect the interests of people most affected by the privacy policies. “I hope they realize that what is good for consumers is ultimately good for business,” said Susan Grant, director of consumer protection at the Consumer Federation of America.
In addition, the major online companies have the reports in their sights, worried over a raft of potential new regulations. They would prefer that the industry continue to police itself.
“Targeted ads are helpful and ad competition is helpful,” said Eric E. Schmidt, the chief executive of Google, which owns the online advertising exchange DoubleClick. In a conversation last week at The New York Times, Mr. Schmidt said that the explosion in online consumer monitoring was increasing friction about how strict the privacy limits should be. And, he added, “it’s going to get a lot worse.”
The White House, meanwhile, has broader goals. It set up its own interagency panel that will look at how to protect consumers while also making United States companies more competitive internationally. It also wants to ensure that any restrictions do not impede law enforcement and national security efforts.
Congress also is expected to intervene, and this may be one area where there is bipartisan cooperation. The House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees the trade commission and privacy issues, will soon have a Republican at its head, but members of both parties in the House and Senate have recently called on companies to account for intrusions or breaches of consumer privacy.
Which agency or group leads the debate could go a long way toward determining the result.
“There is going to be a lot of confusion over the competing proposals and which version Congress and the American people should pay attention to,” said Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, a consumer advocacy group. “We especially fear a policy that is designed to advance the competitive positions of U.S. companies and will undermine new pro-consumer protections at the F.T.C.”
Officially, Commerce Department and trade commission officials say they see the two reports as complementary. The commission will most likely address “privacy by design,” or how privacy features may be built into browsers or Web sites. It will also encourage greater transparency about when data is being collected and how it will be used, and the need for clearly worded privacy or user notices.