We're all clueless about privacy, FTC is told at hearing

December 09, 2012

Web and mobile device users have little understanding about how much of their personal data is collected online, making it difficult to rely on free-market competition for solutions to privacy concerns, privacy experts told the U.S. Federal Trade Commission last week. The FTC or the U.S. Congress needs to set clear online privacy rules, said some speakers at an FTC workshop on comprehensive online data collection on Thursday Other speakers suggested that competition among Internet and device companies and privacy notification efforts by industry groups can work, even if some Web users don't seem to care or understand about data collection. Some services, including search engines, browsers and social networks, are offering their products based on privacy tools or policies, Markham Erickson, general counsel for the trade group the Internet Association. Consumers will punish companies with bad privacy practices, added Stuart Ingis, counsel for the Digital Advertising Alliance, another trade group. "The market reacts when they see a business practice they don't like," he said. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Link: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2018961/were-all-clueless-about-privacy-ftc-is-told-at-hearing.html