FPF Files Comments to FCC on National Broadband Plan
Yesterday, the Future of Privacy Forum filed comments with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) about the National Broadband Plan, which the Commission will be formulating over the next several months (FCC Notice of Inquiry Docket – 09-51). As a think tank focused on promoting greater transparency and consumer online data use, we believe that privacy issues should be at the forefront of any discussion about a national broadband plan. Privacy means that consumers are informed about and have control over how companies that deliver Internet services collect and use their data. Therefore, as we said in our comments to the FCC, “The national broadband plan should make clear that transparency and control are essential to consumers’ confidence about the privacy of their information online, and that only with such consumer confidence will we achieve the Internet usage that is tied to our national broadband goals.” It is our hope that transparency and control will be among the key ingredients in the national broadband plan, and we look forward to seeing the Commission’s ideas in 2010. To read more click here
Digg Will Charge Less for Ads It's Users Like – Bits Blog – NYTimes.com
This is a very good move by Facebook because it resolves an issue we have always been concerned about — people who join, make their profile available only to friends and believe it is private. But then they join the Washington or other region network and dont realize that millions of people can now see their info. No more.
What do you think? Comment here using your Facebook log-in 🙂
Volume of the Obama Administration on Privacy
Our friend Saul Hansell at the New York Times has a piece today entitled “The Obama Administration’s Silence on Privacy, ” which references a speech given yesterday at the Computers, Freedom, and Privacy Conference.The speech was made by Susan Crawford, a science and technology advisor to President Obama. While we are often in synch with Saul’s take on things, we disagree that the Obama Administration has been “silent” on privacy issues. We were at the same conference where Crawford spoke, and her explanation of the President’s cybersecurity plan had a great deal to do with privacy. There is no privacy without data security, which is well-recognized in the new cybersecurity plan, which Crawford discussed and was laid out by President Obama last week. In fact, just days ago FPF applauded the inclusion of an official who will be focused exclusively on privacy issues within that plan. Furthermore, the HITECH Act amendments to HIPAA, which were part of the Obama Administration stimulus plan that passed in February, contain significant new privacy rules for health data. Agency staff are also working on a re-write of the out dated OMB Cookie Policy, and the Office of Science and Technology Policy is innovatively collecting public input on how to handle privacy, among other issues, in carrying out the Open Government Initiative. A top notch CPO is already in place at the Department of Homeland Security and has started examining how to use Web 2.0 in a privacy sensitive manner. So, it is not fair to say the Obama Administration has been “silent” on privacy.
Of course, we do have very high hopes for the Administration’s privacy and technology agenda and are eager to see much more happening. We think there is a pressing need for a overall Chief Privacy Officer . The Privacy Act needs updating, the Office of Privacy and Civil Liberties needs appointees and so much more. But given the competing crisis of the financial system overhaul, the restructuring of the auto industry, plans for the health system and problems with Afghanistan and Iran, we are impressed with the amount of mindshare is getting and the amount of progress being made.
Can having the wrong friends online affect your credit rating?
I understand the idea behind marketers identifying users who have a lot of friends or are very active online and considering them “influencers”. I “get” the marketing value of enhancing a users profile with information from a range of their online public activity. Providing transparency to users and control over this type of data collection is certainly a challenge, but with enough effort and care about how the data is used, it should be possible to design an ethical framework for responsible practices for social network data use.
But I think this story about lenders being pitched the idea of my social network friends being used to influence my credit is a very, very bad idea. This is the kind of idea that convinces lawmakers and advocates that the entire behavioral advertising business model is unacceptable. I hope Rapleaf will rethink this one.Did blogging about this just adjust my network behavior credit score?
Rapleaf, which has harvested data from blogs, online forums, and social networks, says it follows the network behavior of 480 million people. It furnishes friendship data to help customers fine-tune their promotions. Its studies indicate borrowers are a better bet if their friends have higher credit ratings. This might mean a home buyer with a middling credit risk score of 550 should be treated as closer to 600 if most of his or her friends are in that range, says Rapleaf CEO Auren Hoffman.
Such intelligence could prove useful for a financial company. While no one would automatically green-light borrowers based on their friends, the friendship data could lead them to assign a human to see if the mathematical model is missing something. “They pay more than $100 in marketing to [attract] customers,” Hoffman says. “If they reject you, they lose it.”
Obama Adds Senior Security/Privacy Role to White House Staff
It is very heartening to see the important new office of the Cyber Security Coordinator include a dedicated privacy official. Fighting terror, cybercrime or identity theft all call for strong measures that can require access to personal data of Americans. By having a respected senior voice at the table, privacy issues can be properly vetted when key decisions are considered. The Future of Privacy Forum is still hoping for an overall federal CPO or at least a top OMB official to play a broad role at home and abroad as ‘White House Counselor for Privacy’, much like Peter Swire did during the later Clinton years, but we applaud this most recent move as a positive step in the right direction.
