Finally!
From Wall Street Journal News Alert
By JULIA ANGWIN
A coalition of Internet giants including Google Inc. has agreed to support a do-not-track button to be embedded in most Web browsers—a move that the industry had been resisting for more than a year.
The reversal is being announced as part of the White House’s call for Congress to pass a “privacy bill of rights,” that will give people greater control over the personal data collected about them.
Privacy Bill of Rights
Here are the seven rights that the White House is calling for:
- Individual Control: Consumers have a right to exercise control over what personal data companies collect from them and how they use it.
- Transparency: Consumers have a right to easily understandable and accessible information about privacy and security practices.
- Respect for Context: Consumers have a right to expect that companies will collect, use and disclose personal data in ways that are consistent with the context in which consumers provide the data.
- Security:Consumers have a right to secure and responsible handling of personal data.
- Access and Accuracy: Consumers have a right to access and correct personal data in usable formats, in a manner that is appropriate to the sensitivity of the data and the risk of adverse consequences to consumers if the data is inaccurate.
- Focused Collection: Consumers have a right to reasonable limits on the personal data that companies collect and retain.
- Accountability: Consumers have a right to have personal data handled by companies with appropriate measures in place to assure they adhere to the consumer-privacy bill of rights.
The industry has been caught in a number of high-profile privacy slip-ups. Facebook Inc. recently agreed to settle charges by the U.S. government that some of its privacy practices had been unfair and deceptive to users. And last week, Google acknowledged it had been circumventing the privacy settings of people using Apple Inc.’s Web-browsing software on their iPhones, iPads and computers. It stopped the practice after being contacted by The Wall Street Journal.
The new do-not-track button isn’t going to stop all Web tracking. The companies have agreed to stop using the data about people’s Web browsing habits to customize ads, and have agreed not to use the data for employment, credit, health-care or insurance purposes. But the data can still be used for some purposes such as “market research” and “product development” and can still be obtained by law enforcement officers.
The do-not-track button also wouldn’t block companies such as Facebook Inc. from tracking their members through “Like” buttons and other functions.
“It’s a good start,” said Christopher Calabrese, legislative counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union. “But we want you to be able to not be tracked at all if you so choose.”
The do-not-track button has been hotly debated ever since the Federal Trade Commission called for its adoption about two years ago. Mozilla Corp.’s Firefox Web browser was the first to add the do-not-track option early last year. Microsoft Corp.’s Internet Explorer Web browser added it soon after, and Apple included it in the latest version of its operating system, Mountain Lion, which was released to developers this year.
But even people who clicked on the button were still being tracked because advertisers and tracking companies hadn’t agreed to honor the system.
Thursday’s announcement means they will work to begin adopting and honoring the system within nine months, according to the coalition, the Digital Advertising Alliance, which represents over 400 companies.
Speaking for the industry, Stuart Ingis, general counsel for the Digital Advertising Alliance, said the decision to adopt do-not-track is an “evolution” of the industry’s approach. Previously, the industry had been pushing for consumers to “opt out” of Web tracking by clicking on icons in individual advertisements that offered consumers a choice of blocking the customized ads. Mr. Ingis said that the industry will continue that approach while it’s in the process of adopting the do-not-track system. (End of excerpt)
Now we can wait and see if Google continues its cheating ways!
Passing Through . . . . 