Why Web Giants would benefit from a ‘do not track’ policy
The Federal Trade Commission has issued a report recommending that browsers include a “Do Not Track” mechanism that would allow people to surf the web without sites collecting and sharing data about their activities. In the same way that the “Do Not Call” list hampered that ability of some (but alas, not all) telemarketers to interrupt our dinners with unwanted calls, the idea sounds like bad news for web sites that target ads based on such data.
But in the end, such a move could be just what web giants like Google and Facebook need to get their users to opt in to sharing data, rather than opting out.
Opting out of telemarketing calls is a fairly black and white decision. You either hate them or you don’t mind them. But online privacy is a much murkier affair. On the one hand, behavioral data can help sites serve ads or deliver sponsored-search results that are – theoretically, at least – of interest. Increasingly, they are being used to improve the web experiences as well, whether it’s Netflix using your viewing history to recommend new movies, or apps like Foursquare using geolocation.
But on the other hand, there is the creep factor inherent in knowing that your actions are being tracked. Tracking technologies are growing more sophisticated, and more intrusive, as evidenced by Flash cookies, fingerprinting devices and sites tracking your browsing history. Many users don’t know just how intimately they are being watched by complete strangers on the web.
Giving people a simple mechanism of control over whether and when they are tracked would reduce the creep factor. A Do Not Track mechanism would need to allow people to be tracked by sites they trust, just as a Do Not Call list doesn’t blindly filter out calls from, say, a company or organization you trust.
That could be good news for Google, Facebook and others, which have argued that they want our personal data to make their sites more useful. If they’re right, users will have a chance to opt out easily and find out for themselves. And if the benefits of sharing data with select sites prove to be greater than the risks, the number of people who don’t want to be tracked may be insignificantly small.
Facebook privacy backlash in FTC’s hands
The grousing about Facebook’s recent privacy changes is now an official complaint.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center, along with eight other groups, filed a complaint with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Thursday urging the regulator to open an investigation into Facebook’s new privacy settings.
Facebook’s privacy changes “violate user expectations, diminish user privacy and contradict Facebook’s own representations,” reads the 29-page complaint, which accuses the world’s No.1 Internet social networking company of engaging in unfair and deceptive practices.
The complaint comes a week after Facebook unveiled sweeping new privacy changes that it said were designed to simplify privacy settings for its 350 million users, and to give users more control over who sees their personal information.
But many critics took issue with the fact that the new privacy settings made some personal information viewable to “Everybody” by default, instead of just their circle of Facebook friends, unless a user specifically opted to retain their “Old” settings. And information like a Facebook user’s gender and home city were treated as public information under the new privacy policy.
Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt said in an emailed statement that Facebook had discussed its new privacy settings with the FTC prior to making the changes.
“We’ve had productive discussions with dozens of organizations around the world about the recent changes and we’re disappointed that EPIC has chosen to share their concerns with the FTC while refusing to talk to us about them,” Schnitt said.
I, for one, believe that “tracking” us is a violation of our Constitutional rights. I do not understand how, in the name of marketing, that this American Right can be so casually stolen from us. If we wanted someone to know our every move we would tell them ourselves. I have experienced violent people having the ability to “stalk” me because of the insecurity of mobile phones and internet usage. The police had to deal with this issue to keep me safe. Who keeps us safe from marketing stalkers? Or other internet users?