THE US Federal Trade Commission has come up with timely recommendations to protect privacy online, said the New York Times in an editorial published Sunday. Excerpts: For years, data trackers have collected information about people's activities as they surf the web, packaging it into profiles to sell to advertisers. The practice itself is not what is at issue, but rather the way it is done. Many trackers don't disclose it. Others put complex, pro forma disclosures in obscure places on websites. Few consumers read them. Most don't understand how much information they are sharing about their online lives. Internet companies and advertisers insist that industry self-regulation is enough to protect consumers. But companies' many lapses – one site that allowed parents to monitor their children online, for example, sold information about the kids' activities to marketers – suggest it is time for regulators to set minimum standards that every company must follow. The FTC sets three recommendations to improve the protection of consumer privacy, starting with more transparency, including standard, simple and clear privacy disclosures to let people know who is doing what with the data about their online activities. It recommends that companies include privacy protection in their operational goals. And most important, the FTC insists that consumers be given a clear, simple option to opt out of online data tracking altogether – along the lines of the do-not-call registry – perhaps through a “do not track” button on web browsers. Fortunately, privacy protection has bipartisan support. So this is a great opportunity for Congress to prove that it can pass some meaningful legislation. __
