Actions of negotiating online privacy for users

Actions of negotiating online privacy for users

Europeans have long relied on governments to set policies to protect their privacy on the internet. America has taken a different tack, shunning detailed prescriptions for how companies should handle people’s data online and letting industries regulate themselves. But on February 22nd the Obama administration signaled a shift in America’s position when it laid out a series of principles that it hopes will be enshrined in a law, giving people more control over the information being collected about them as they surf the web. But it is one thing to bung the switch into browser, and quite another to get advertisers to comply with the settings, as can be seen in the case of Apple's Safari browser and its less-restrictive default setting that blocks third-party tracking using web cookies.
The move comes at a time when web companies have increasingly come under fire for the way they use consumers’ data. Last year America’s Federal Trade Commission (FTC) castigated Google and Facebook after both firms were found to have breached privacy commitments. More recently Google has been accused of circumventing controls on Apple’s Safari web browser that are designed to prevent firms from tracking people’s surfing habits. There has also been an outcry over privacy breaches caused by some smartphone applications, or “apps”.
In response to mounting pressure from privacy activists outraged by these and other events, the Obama administration would like Congress to enact what it calls a “privacy bill of rights”. Among the principles this would enshrine are the control over what data is being collected, not collecting data for one purpose and then using them in other contexts without permission and to have personal information held securely. Companies' privacy policies would be expected to reflect these principles.
Given this is an election year, there is little chance that the Obama administration's proposals will be translated into law any time soon. But the hope is that progress can be made nonetheless. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, an arm of America’s Department of Commerce, has been asked to work with advocacy groups and industry associations to produce voluntary “codes of conduct” that comply with the principles in the proposed bill of rights. The FTC could then enforce these codes.
The approach is not without risks. One is that lobbyists will resist a strict implementation of the privacy principles as the details of the codes are hammered out. Another is that some companies will simply refuse to sign up to these voluntary regimes if they do not like the outcome of the negotiations. Some manufacturers also doubt that FTC will be able to sanction firms that breach the codes.