Do Not Track History -- In the fall of 2007, WPF executive director Pam Dixon convened a meeting of civil liberty, consumer, and privacy groups to discuss and develop an idea she had of "Do Not Track." This became the Do Not Track proposal, which has now morphed into something quite different.
Online privacy -- Pam Dixon will participate in the IAB's formal privacy policy debate as a privacy and consumer representative on Tuesday, Feb. 26. This marks the first time the IAB annual leadership summit has hosted a formal policy debate. The debate will be moderated by Katy Kay of Advertising Age.
Arizona School of Law -- Pam Dixon participated as a discussant and contributor to the Arizona School of Law's private workshop on the topic of the future of privacy. Key areas of discussion included the European Union's Right to be Forgotten proposal, consent and health privacy, and Do Not Track.
The FTC's new privacy report -- a long -awaited planbook for privacy in the digital age - has picked up several key recommendations the WPF has made. First, the report picks up WPF's direct recommendation in its 2011 comments that the FTC set up a centralized web site to allow consumers to opt out of data brokers. The FTC has directly called for this as a primary part of its report. The WPF strongly supports this. Pam Dixon of the WPF originated the Do Not Track idea in 2007, and with a group of privacy experts, submitted the original idea to the FTC that year. Now, DNT has also made it into the final FTC report.
Some of the advertising that is done online comes with hooks. Using a variety of technologies, some largely unseen, online advertisers can track online activities, sometimes in profound ways that consumers are not expecting. Not all online advertising has "hooks" that are problematic or that raise privacy challenges. But a type of advertising called "behaviorally targeted advertising" often does. Behavioral advertising has two key components: tracking and targeting.
WPF Comments on the FTC Privacy Report -- The World Privacy Forum filed comments with the FTC in response to its preliminary staff report, Protecting Consumer Privacy in an Era of Rapid Change: A Proposed Framework for Businesses and Policymakers. In our comments, we urge the FTC to take affirmative steps to protect consumer privacy online and offline. Our comments include a brief history of privacy self regulation, and point out how privacy self regulation has consistently failed. The comments also discuss Do Not Track, and urge the FTC to take a broader look at tracking protections for consumers. WPF also specifically requested that the FTC identify credit reporting bureaus subject to Fair Credit Reporting Act regulations and assist consumers in locating those bureaus.
Ten privacy and consumer groups, including the World Privacy Forum, unveiled a consensus document outlining key consumer rights and protections in the behavioral advertising sector. The document is directed toward the Federal Trade Commission, and urges the FTC to take proactive steps to adequately protect consumers as online and other forms of behavioral tracking and targeting become more ubiquitous. The consensus document was filed with the Secretary of the FTC and its commissioners. Behavioral advertising is the focus of the FTC's eHavioral Advertising Town Hall meeting taking place November 1-2 in Washington, D.C. The network advertising sector has a self-regulatory plan, the Network Advertising Initiative, in place, and has had this plan in place since 2000. The consensus document addresses the many areas where the NAI plan has failed to protect consumers.