Rockefeller to introduce Do Not Track bill in Senate

US Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.V.) will introduce a Do Not Track bill next week that would require companies to abide the choice of consumers who opt out of online behavioral tracking, reports Direct Marketing News. The Do Not Track Online Act of 2011 would also permit the Federal Trade Commission to take action against companies who violate consumers’ privacy requests, according to a statement from the Senate Commerce Committee, of which Rockefeller is chairman…

Click here for the full story

…Read More

Legislators support internet privacy, but question how to do it

Lawmakers examining the Federal Trade Commission’s recommendation for a “do not track” mechanism to restrict the monitoring of internet users said that they supported stricter safeguards for consumer privacy, but raised questions on how the system would work, reports the New York Times. Many also expressed concern that it would undermine one of the main pillars of the Internet’s growth–the development of free, advertising-supported content. Even within the F.T.C. itself, there is not unanimous support for a do-not-track effort. William E. Kovacic, a Republican commissioner who was the agency’s chairman during the last year of the Bush administration, concurred with the decision to release the F.T.C. report on Wednesday. But he added that he believed the do-not-track recommendation was “premature,” and that the commission needed to present “greater support for the proposition that consumer expectations of privacy are largely going unmet.”

Some Democrats in the House and the Senate, however, have already embraced the idea of a do-not-track mechanism. On Thursday, Representative Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, said he would introduce a bill that would put in place such a system to prevent the tracking of children using the internet…

Click here for the full story…Read More

Stage set for showdown on online privacy

After “do not call” lists became popular, more than 90 percent of people who signed up reported fewer annoying telemarketing calls. Now, privacy advocates are pushing for a similar “do not track” feature that would let internet users tell web sites to stop surreptitiously tracking their online habits and collecting clues about age, salary, health, location and leisure activities, reports the New York Times. That proposal and other ideas to protect online privacy are setting up a confrontation among internet companies, federal regulators, the Obama administration, and Congress over how strict any new rules should be. In the next few weeks, both the Federal Trade Commission and the Commerce Department are planning to release independent, and possibly conflicting, reports about online privacy. Top Commerce officials have indicated that the department favors letting the industry regulate itself, building on the common practice of user agreements where companies post their privacy policies online or consumers check a box agreeing to abide by them. Top trade commission officials, however, have indicated they are exploring a stricter standard, one that requires a “do not track” option on a web site or browser similar to the “do not call” lists…

Click here for the full story

…Read More