FTC proposes privacy ptotecting “Do Not Track“ mechanism by Zuzana Zelenakova

The US Federal Trade Commission has proposed so called Do Not Track mechanism aimed at protecting users´ privacy while browsing the Internet. The agency has been working on the report released Wednesday for the past year. "The FTC wants to help ensure that the growing, changing, thriving information marketplace is built on a framework that promotes privacy, transparency, business innovation and consumer choice," FTC chairman Jon Leibowitz said in a statement. The mechanism is aimed mainly at online advertisers´ practices of monitoring the movement of consumers on the Internet and subsequently analysing their preferences. As the report suggest the most practical s! olution would be to target the problem through a setting on the computer browser, a switch that would enable people to prevent their online behaviour from being tracked. "Today's technology makes it easy for companies to obtain, collect, store, and transfer unprecedented amounts of information, but industry self regulation has proven inadequate to protect consumers," reads the report. "Industry must do better." The commission has also proposed that the companies introduce consumer privacy into their everyday practices collecting only data that are necessary and then deleting them for safety purposes. Another step is to make privacy policies that "consumers typically do not read, let alone understand" more simple and shorter. The feedback from the companies is expected by January 31, later next year the FTC would like to have the new framework implemented. “It doesn’t resolve all the issues raised by behavioral advertising, but it would give people more control o! ver the collection and use of their information until we can h! ash out the rest of the complex issues that would be involved in getting some baseline privacy regulation,” says Susan Grant, director of consumer protection at the Consumer federation of America, about the proposed changes that should be only a partial solution.

related story (sgx18707): http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101201/tc_afp/usitinternetgove...

by Zuzana Zelenakova for Cantell TV (http://cantell.tv)

Cantell TV is the fastest growing provider of digital broadcasting coupled with telecommunications, allow! ing people to easily control, view, upload and share digital content through proprietary interface coupled with free phone calls. Cantell TV is committed to delivering infinite choices to your world of entertainment at the tip of your fingers.