White House Seeks Cooperation for Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights
By Karla Robinson
February 27, 2012
February 27, 2012
- The Obama Administration has released its Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights — an initiative to protect online privacy for Americans.
- Working with the Federal Trade Commission, the plan is intended to enforce privacy standards to provide better personal control for consumers, encourage innovation from Internet companies and uphold global standards.
- The proposal focuses on seven protections against data aggregation: “Consumers should have control over the kind of data companies collect, companies must be transparent about data usage plans and respect the context in which it is provided and disclosed. Companies would have to ensure secure and responsible handling of the data and be accountable for strong privacy measures. The bill of rights also calls for reasonable limits on the personal data that online companies can try to collect and retain, and the ability for consumers to correct their information,” Reuters reports.
- The Department of Commerce and the FTC will collaborate with privacy advocates and Internet companies to come up with enforceable privacy policies. The industry has made attempts to self-regulate but some consumer groups and members of Congress believe the situation requires government involvement.
- One main privacy concern addressed in the proposal is Internet tracking for targeted advertising. The top Internet browsers have opt-out “do not track” buttons (Google Chrome is still in the process of updating) and many online advertisers agreed to uphold “do not track” requests.
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