Privacy Working Group

This last weekend the New York Times printed an interesting article, “Redrawing the Route to Online Privacy”, that noted today’s model of online privacy policies is no longer fulfilling its obligation of protecting consumers.  With the prevalence of data harvesting and the ability to track Web-browsing history, this 1990’s era concept of “notice and choice” is no longer enough to ensure consumers are fully informed of how and why businesses are using the personal information collected online.  The Times described some new options that could replace notice and choice that are being developed by privacy experts such as Lorrie Cranor, Ryan Calo and Ed Felten.

As Professor Danielle Citron notes, another option (reported in the Times a few weeks ago) is a method tested by the Future of Privacy Forum and WPP and recently adopted by a coalition of leading trade groups, including the Interactive Advertising Bureau, The Direct Marketing Association, The American Association of Advertising Agencies and the Association of National Advertisers.  By labeling banners that are targeted based on the previous web sites users have visited with a special “I” icon and with the tag “interest based ads”, consumers are alerted and given an option to turn-off the ad targeting if they so choose.

We hope that this new effort to communicate with consumer about privacy in a meaningful way, as well as many of the other solutions noted in the New York Times article, will be a step toward the business community advancing user transparency and control.  By voluntarily taking steps to enhance user trust, both profits and privacy should be possible.