Privacy groups on Thursday criticized the Federal Trade Commission’s new policies on targeting advertising by tracking consumer behavior online, saying they don’t adequately protect the public, including children and people with sensitive medical conditions.
Although privacy advocates acknowledge that the FTC took some steps toward greater clarity, they complained the commission largely adhered to its Bush administration policy of self-regulation.
“It failed to protect consumers here,” said Jeff Chester, executive director at the Center for Digital Democracy in Washington, D.C. “This announcement today is directly connected to the failure of the FTC to oversee the consolidation of control of advertising in the online marketplace.”
In a long-awaited report Thursday, the FTC largely left intact its principles governing the notice, choice and control that companies should give consumers when they track their activities to refine the type of advertising they get.
Through such behavior-targeting practices, someone who visits a golf site might be labeled a golf enthusiast and offered a pitch for a golf vacation package, even when visiting a site that is completely unrelated.
The new guidelines add a few clarifications:
• Excluded are sites that do not share the behavioral information it collects with outside parties. This applies when sites sell and display ads in-house.
• Companies that collect data outside the traditional Web site context should make sure that disclosure and choice remain clear and easy to use. This seems aimed at mobile applications and partnerships that some Internet service providers have with companies like NebuAd Inc. to display ads based on general surfing, not just at a particular site.
• Companies should consider limiting how long they keep data.
The FTC said companies should obtain “express consent” from consumers before collecting sensitive data, such as tracking children’s behavior, health histories and Social Security numbers. But it leaves to others to come up with standards on what qualifies as sensitive.
The guidelines do not have the force of law but could be relied upon by FTC staff as it decides which cases to investigate and pursue.
They “still fall short of the regulatory authority of the agency to step in and protect consumers,” said Lillie Coney, associate director at Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, D.C.
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More