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From the News Desk
Monday, 5. November 2007
Online Privacy Groups Ask for "Do not Track" List
In what could be the beginning of a new revolution against organizations using cookies to track, store and use the activites of an online user, nine US privacy and consumer organizations has asked the Federal Trade Commission to create a "do not track" list. Although coming from a small in number of companies, the proposal is a sign just how intense the ad-targeting criticism from consumer-privacy advocates has become.
Cookies are a necessary evil that allows sites to target what advertisements an Internet user sees and clicks on. This information, in the long run makes a lot of people various amounts of money. The “do not track” system will make ad networks and others who use cookie-based tracking technology to submit lists of their servers to a central regulatory body. Users who do not want to be tracked could then, ideally, download a browser plug-in that would identify those server logs and disallow cookies from them, according to Ari Schwartz, deputy director of the Center for Democracy and Technology. Hence, the list would function much like the FTC's "do not call" registry that consumers can join to prevent telemarketing phone calls, according to the groups, which include the Center for Democracy and Technology, Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Consumer Federation of America.
Steven K. Berry, exec VP-government affairs and corporate responsibility at the Direct Marketing Association, called a do-not-track list a solution in search of a problem. "Such a list would significantly undermine the successful business model of the internet by limiting benefits to consumers, stifling innovation and eliminating the valuable and effective marketing-supported content," he said in a statement.
However, there are very few organizations up in arms against the tracking system. The response to the proposal or the congressional pressure is not as much as it was for the Do not Call Registry. Additionally, several states already had enacted do-not-call lists at the time the federal regulation was passed; none has enacted an internet equivalent. When the proposal came few marketers or agencies were present. The panelists were mostly privacy advocates and consumers groups, ad networks, trade associations such as the Online Publishers Association and the Interactive Advertising Bureau, internet pundits, and FTC staff.
FTC Commissioner, Mr. Leibowitz's concern regarding the public's ignorance about privacy policies echoes that of consumer advocates. There's not apathy toward privacy issues, they say, but rather a misunderstanding of how consumers' data are collected and used. Marketing trade groups struck back with claims that consumers prefer targeted ads and free, ad-supported content -- a byproduct of ad targeting.
Cookies are a necessary evil that allows sites to target what advertisements an Internet user sees and clicks on. This information, in the long run makes a lot of people various amounts of money. The “do not track” system will make ad networks and others who use cookie-based tracking technology to submit lists of their servers to a central regulatory body. Users who do not want to be tracked could then, ideally, download a browser plug-in that would identify those server logs and disallow cookies from them, according to Ari Schwartz, deputy director of the Center for Democracy and Technology. Hence, the list would function much like the FTC's "do not call" registry that consumers can join to prevent telemarketing phone calls, according to the groups, which include the Center for Democracy and Technology, Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Consumer Federation of America.
Steven K. Berry, exec VP-government affairs and corporate responsibility at the Direct Marketing Association, called a do-not-track list a solution in search of a problem. "Such a list would significantly undermine the successful business model of the internet by limiting benefits to consumers, stifling innovation and eliminating the valuable and effective marketing-supported content," he said in a statement.
However, there are very few organizations up in arms against the tracking system. The response to the proposal or the congressional pressure is not as much as it was for the Do not Call Registry. Additionally, several states already had enacted do-not-call lists at the time the federal regulation was passed; none has enacted an internet equivalent. When the proposal came few marketers or agencies were present. The panelists were mostly privacy advocates and consumers groups, ad networks, trade associations such as the Online Publishers Association and the Interactive Advertising Bureau, internet pundits, and FTC staff.
FTC Commissioner, Mr. Leibowitz's concern regarding the public's ignorance about privacy policies echoes that of consumer advocates. There's not apathy toward privacy issues, they say, but rather a misunderstanding of how consumers' data are collected and used. Marketing trade groups struck back with claims that consumers prefer targeted ads and free, ad-supported content -- a byproduct of ad targeting.
