FPF Co-Chair Chris Wolf analyzes the draft Kerry privacy bill
FPF Co-Chair Chris Wolf analyzes the draft Kerry privacy bill circulating around Washington in this blog entry:
FPF Co-Chair Chris Wolf analyzes the draft Kerry privacy bill circulating around Washington in this blog entry:
Letter to the Editor
The New York Times
620 Eighth Avenue
New York, NY 10018
We agree with your editorial “A New Internet Privacy Law?” (3/19/11) that minimum standards of privacy are needed. But your reflexive call for a “Do Not Track” provision in whatever law emerges ignores important facts. A technology solution already has emerged with web browsers that allow consumers to send a “Do Not Track” signal to ad networks, indicating that they don’t want to be targeted with ads based on their web browsing. It hard to imagine an equally effective legal prescription. “Do Not Track” sounds deceptively similar to “Do Not Call,” the very effective law where registering phone numbers stops commercial solicitations by phone.
The similarity ends with the nomenclature. It is not easy, and may be impossible, to craft a law that encompasses the many ways in which online activities can be tracked. There is no potential for a government registry of online opt-outs for industry to consult as is there is for phone numbers. Moreover, a one-size fits all Do Not Track law may lead to clever work-arounds by determined online trackers and unintended consequences for the Internet. There is a role for law to protect online privacy, to be sure, but it is not through Congressional mandates for specific technological fixes.
Christopher Wolf and Jules Polonetsky
Washington, D.C.
The authors are co-chairs of the Future of Privacy Forum think tank.
The Financial Times reports that in the EU, Yahoo will provide more information on its websites that shows how the data of users is used to target advertising, by including its “Ad Choices” icon to advertisements on pages such as Yahoo Mail and Messenger. This is the same innovative icon that is now required by the self regulatory standards U.S. companies are following. Yahoo was one of the first to test the initial “power I” icon developed by the Future of Privacy Forum more than a year ago, before it evolved in to the “forward I” now being used more broadly. By clicking on the icon, users can get information on who placed the ad, the reason for why it appeared, and how to opt-out. And Yahoo, DoubleClick, Blue Kai, Lotame and others are exceeding the current industry standards by showing users their clickstream profiles and allowing them to be edited.
Interestingly, most EU data regulators would tell you that access to clickstream profiles and such transparency is obligatory under their law and has been required for a decade. And there are many leading local EU companies doing behavioral advertising in EU countries. The EuroPrise seal does a great job of scoping leading practices with its few online advertising seal holders, and the European Advertising Standards Alliance is working on guidelines, but most of the local EU advertisers are still working hard to catch up to the leading US practices.
At a time when the U.S. is being encouraged to adopt more of the baseline protections in the EU Directive, it is good to see that some U.S. innovations are being looked to over there to better empower consumers when it comes to targeted adverting.
Take a look at Chris’ perspective on the current state of play in privacy legislation on Capitol Hill: Privacy in the Legislative Branch: A Quick Update.
The recent online-inspired political upheaval in the Mid-East, occurring at the same time as U.S. and European government agencies are asking for comment about online privacy, show the importance of having an integrated understanding of both privacy and the freedom of association. The events unfolding in Egypt concern revolutionary political moments, but the Obama campaign, the Tea Party, and the daily activities of innumerable charities and social causes show that modern associations occur extremely frequently through social networks and related online services.
Professor Swire’s paper discusses the ways that the rights of both privacy and freedom of association should fit together. Swire will be interviewed by Jeff Rosen, Professor of Law at George Washington University Law School and legal affairs editor of The New Republic.
WHEN:
Tuesday, March 1
3 p.m. – 4 p.m. EST
WHO:
Peter Swire, FPF Advisory Board member; Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress; C. William O’Neill Professor of Law at the Ohio State University
Professor Jeff Rosen, Professor of Law at George Washington University Law School
Jules Polonetsky and Christopher Wolf, co-chairs, Future of Privacy Forum
WHAT:
Release of “Social Networks, Privacy, and Freedom of Association: How Individual Rights Can Both Encourage and Reduce Uses of Personal Information” by Professor Swire
View Peter Swire’s paper here:
http://ftc.gov/os/comments/privacyreportframework/00342-57843.pdf
WHERE: http://www.livestream.com/futureofprivacy
*Also available on our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/FutureofPrivacy. Click on “Livestream” underneath our FPF logo on the left-hand side.*
Please pass along to any colleagues or friends who you feel would be interested in this event!
QUESTIONS:
Questions for Swire or Rosen can be sent via email to [email protected], posted on the FPF Facebook Page, or posted on Twitter using the hashtag #privacyrights.
RSVP:
Please RSVP to [email protected] if you’d like to join.
FPF filed comments on the Preliminary FTC Staff Report, “Protecting Consumer Privacy in an Era of Rapid Change: A Proposed Framework for Businesses and Policymakers.” To view FPF’s comments, click here.
Jules Polonetsky Executive Director and Co-chair Future of Privacy Forum |
Jules serves as Executive Director and Co-chair of the Future of Privacy Forum, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that seeks to advance responsible data practices. FPF is supported by the chief privacy officers more than 110 leading companies, as well as an advisory board of comprised of the country’s leading academics and advocates. FPF’s current projects focus on Big Data, Mobile, Location, Apps, the Internet of Things, Wearables, De-Identification, Connected Cars and Student Privacy. Read More >> |
Christopher Wolf Founder and Co-chair Future of Privacy Forum |
Christopher Wolf is the co-chair of the Future of Privacy Forum. Chris is also a partner in the Washington, DC office of Hogan Lovells LLP, where he is a leader of that firm’s privacy practice group. The views expressed by the Future of Privacy Forum are solely its own and do not reflect the views of Hogan Lovells LLP or its clients… Read More >> |
Mary Culnan Professor Emeritus at Bentley University |
Mary has testified before Congress, the Massachusetts Senate, and other government agencies on a range of privacy issues. In 1993, she served on a White House Task Force on Presidential Correspondence. From 1997-98, she served as a Commissioner on the President’s Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection…Read More >> |
Peter P. Swire Nancy J. and Lawrence P. Huang Professor at the Scheller College of Business of the Georgia Institute of Technology |
Peter P. Swire is the Nancy J. and Lawrence P. Huang Professor at the Scheller College of Business of the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is a Senior Fellow with the Future of Privacy Forum, and also a fellow with the Center for American Progress and Center for Democracy and Technology. In November, 2012 he was named the co-chair of the Tracking Protection Working Group of the World Wide Web Consortium, the Do Not Track process. He has been a recognized leader in privacy, cybersecurity, and the law of cyberspace for well over a decade, as a scholar, government official, and participant in numerous policy, public interest, and business settings…Read More >> |
Omer Tene Associate Professor College of Management School of Law |
Omer Tene is an Associate Professor at the College of Management School of Law, Rishon Le Zion, Israel; Affiliate Scholar at the Stanford Center for Internet and Society; and Visiting Fellow at the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology and the Institute for Jewish Law and Israeli Law, Economy and Society.He is Managing Director of Tene & Associates, where he consults the Israeli government, data protection authority and…Read More >> |
Some companies are doing what they can. “I’m heartened by the attention to mobile privacy issues,” says privacy attorney Chris Wolf of Hogan Lovells. New services revolve around “ways to empower people to protect their information.”