{"id":810,"date":"2012-06-30T21:45:16","date_gmt":"2012-06-30T21:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ncjolt.org\/\/?p=810"},"modified":"2020-06-04T20:54:08","modified_gmt":"2020-06-04T20:54:08","slug":"the-ftc-releases-report-calling-for-less-consumer-tracking-and-more-transparency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/blogs\/the-ftc-releases-report-calling-for-less-consumer-tracking-and-more-transparency\/","title":{"rendered":"The FTC Releases Report Calling for Less Consumer Tracking and More Transparency"},"content":{"rendered":"
Monday, April 2nd 2012 by\u00a0Barbara L. Herrera<\/strong><\/div>\n
\nThe Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has released a\u00a0new report<\/a>\u00a0titled, \u201cProtecting Consumer Privacy in an Era of Rapid Change: Recommendations for Business and Policymakers.\u201d
\nIn this detailed report, the FTC is\u00a0calling for many changes<\/a>\u00a0to help improve and protect consumer privacy while more companies and industries are tracking consumer information unbeknownst to the consumer. For example, the\u00a0FTC is calling on industry efforts<\/a>\u00a0to continue development on the\u00a0Do Not Track<\/a>\u00a0system, which allows consumers to opt out of third party tracking.
\nAnother recommendation is that companies\u00a0dispose of customer information<\/a>\u00a0after completion of a particular transaction.\u00a0 This would mean, for example, that after a weekend vacation is over, the customer would not be contacted with additional advertisement for car rentals and hotel offers.
\nAdditional\u00a0recommendations<\/a>\u00a0include providing consumers with the same level of protection as desktop users, improve overall disclosure about tracking systems, and requesting that the industry develop a centralized self-regulatory program that would set industry standards to which the public can determine whether a company\u2019s behavior is an acceptable one.
\nCompanies and marketers\u00a0are at odds with the FTC<\/a>\u00a0on its recommendations, asserting that companies should make the ultimate choice on how consumer data is stored. Noting that some sensitive information should have higher protection, consumer data indicating purchasing habits may not be harmful, and this information is oftentimes\u00a0critical for the success of marketers<\/a>.\u00a0 More importantly, having such regulation would impede Internet companies and networks by imposing additional burdens and hindering growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe recommendations by the FTC and the Obama administration have set the stage for regulatory reform on consumer privacy protection.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Others believe that despite the FTC\u2019s efforts, the recommendations are still\u00a0too soft<\/a>. Urging the industry to be self-regulating and developing systems like the Do Not Track system may simply not be enough.\u00a0 The FTC has its\u00a0hands tied however<\/a>, since the FTC has\u00a0limited power in enacting and enforcing rules<\/a>that would dictate what Internet and date providers can do with tracking consumer information.
\nStill, despite the lack in power, the FTC can have\u00a0a heavy hand in helping influence<\/a>\u00a0legislation through Congress. Many of the provisions of the report reflect recommendations by President Barack Obama\u2019s administration in the proposed \u201cConsumer Privacy Bill of Rights<\/a>.” This Bill, much like the report, seeks more accountability and transparency from data brokers and Internet providers, and declares that the consumer has the right to limit the information that is used by these providers.
\nThe recommendations by the FTC and the Obama administration have set the stage for regulatory reform on consumer privacy protection. The FTC guidelines were two years in the making, through various drafts that took into consideration many comments regarding the proposed guidelines. This is indicative of the battle consumers and regulators will face. Consumers who will welcome these changes will have to face a major opposing group: U.S. businesses that have come to rely on easily retrieving consumer purchasing habits through data brokers. Certainly, such disparate positions will require more of a balance.\u00a0 Reaching this balance is the next step, whether or not companies and data brokers take the initiative, as the FTC suggests.\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monday, April 2nd 2012 by\u00a0Barbara L. Herrera The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has released a\u00a0new report\u00a0titled, \u201cProtecting Consumer Privacy in an Era of Rapid Change: Recommendations for Business and Policymakers.\u201d In this detailed report, the FTC is\u00a0calling for many changes\u00a0to help improve and protect consumer privacy while more companies and industries are tracking consumer information …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[51],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=810"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7713,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810\/revisions\/7713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}