Europe’s privacy regulators are advancing toward adopting much stricter do-not-track rules than what the U.S. online advertising industry prefers.
To read the full article and see FPF’s Chris Wolf’s quotes, please click here.
FPF is pleased to be a co-sponsor and presenter at the IAPP Navigate program on September 14th in Dallas, at which both FPF co-chairs Jules Polonetsky and Chris Wolf will present. Here is a blog entry on the issue of privacy in the cloud and whose law applies, which also describes one session at IAPP Navigate:
To see both of the Themes where FPF co-chairs Jules Polonetsky and Chris Wolf will be moderating, please click here.
Future of Privacy Forum is pleased to share the second annual “Privacy Papers for Policy Makers,” showcasing leading analytical thinking about current and emerging privacy issues.
The Future of Privacy Forum (FPF) released the newest edition of its Privacy Papers for Policy Makers. To see the full text of the papers and the executive summaries of the writings visit http://fpf.org/the-privacy-papers/ .
WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government has put Google, Microsoft, Apple and other technology companies on notice: Give consumers a way prevent advertisers from tracking their movements across the Web — or face regulation.
Yet for all its innovative know-how and entrepreneurial spirit, the technology industry has yet to agree on a simple, meaningful solution to protect consumer privacy on the Internet.
Bloomberg Law conducted a video interview this week with Hogan Lovells Privacy and Information Management practice co-director Chris Wolf on current privacy law issues, ranging from how important privacy is to the continued growth of e-commerce, to EU-US relations, to Do Not Track, to the Right to be Forgotten.
See FPF’s own Chris Wolf here.
Other privacy experts say that if users believe they have control over who sees what, they are more likely to share.
“I think it’s part of an evolution to push back at the notion that Facebook is trying to trick you into sharing,” said Jules Polonetsky of the Future of Privacy Forum, which is based in Washington. “You’re more likely to do so when you know what you’re doing.”
App-makers may need to look up from those iPhones, Android and BlackBerry games and other tools they’re developing in order to keep closer watch on Washington, where federal regulators are mulling new ways to protect app users.
To read the full article, and see FPF’s Chris Wolf’s comments, please click here.
The Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB) has received a green light from the FTC’s Bureau of Competition for the CBBB’s “Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising (OBA),” drafted by a coalition of industry associations. http://www.ftc.gov/os/2011/08/100815cbbbletter.pdf The Principles, administered by the Digital Advertising Alliance, require transparency about the information collected and are intended to give consumers control over whether and how their information is used. The issue presented to the FTC by the CBBB was whether the accountability program would be viewed as a restraint of trade under the antitrust laws because of the collaboration of businesses in developing and enforcing the standards.
An advisory opinion letter from the FTC determined that accountability program “is intended to increase transparency and consumer control of OBA, which has the potential to increase consumer welfare, and there appears to be little or no potential for competitive harm associated with the proposed accountability program.” The FTC still could object in the future if the principles as applied were used to limit competition rather than simply promote consumer welfare.
Notably, the advisory opinion stated that it “is limited to the competition law analysis requested by the CBBB and does not address the adequacy or appropriateness of the industry self-regulatory principles or their administration.” Translation: “We don’t speak for our Bureau of Consumer Protection colleagues on the adequacy of the self-regulatory program from a privacy perspective.”
Sen. Jay Rockefeller today commended the FTC for cracking down on an app-maker for violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act but also called on the commission to finish revising the rules to keep pace with evolving technology. “The FTC’s enforcement action sets a legal precedent that mobile applications targeting children must abide by the protections established by the law,” the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee said in a statement. “And while I am pleased with the FTC’s recent action, I also believe it is crucial that the FTC completes its revision of the COPPA rule to account for changing technology and give consumers the regulatory protections they need for the future.”
To read the entire article click here.