Internet privacy — The World Privacy Forum’s guide on how to opt-out of tracking cookies has undergone a complete update. We have added new cookie opt-outs and have updated all of our descriptions of where and how to opt out of online ad tracking.
Consumer Excellence Award — World Privacy Forum executive director Pam Dixon has received a 2008 Consumer Excellence Award for her leadership and work in the area of medical identity theft and consumer privacy from Consumer Action. Also honored was Herb Weisbaum, a 5-time Emmy-winner who is a consumer contributor to NBC’s Today Show. Consumer Action was founded in 1971 and is a national non-profit organization focused on consumer education and advocacy. The awards ceremony was held in San Francisco on June 26th. The World Privacy Forum is honored to accept this award.
OECD | Fair Information Practices — At a key meeting of the OECD on the future of the Internet economy, the OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria reaffirmed support of the 1980 OECD Privacy Principles. Also, Secretary General Angel Gurria expressed support for formalizing the participation of civil society in OECD going forward and for paying more attention to information security and identity theft problems. Secretary General Gurria noted that “A more decentralised, networked approach to policy formulation for the Internet Economy that includes the active participation of stakeholders needs to be the norm.” Many parts of the recent OECD meeting may be viewed online.
Genetic privacy — The World Privacy Forum participated in a Council for Responsible Genetics (CRG) conference on genetic databases at New York University. The groundbreaking conference focused on key issues of race and genetic databases, fairness, accuracy, and privacy. The World Privacy Forum discussed a paper by Dr. Harry G. Levine, Drug Arrests and DNA, noting that innocent victims of medical identity theft may be arrested for the “drug seeking behavior” of the criminals impersonating them.
Financial privacy — The World Privacy Forum filed comments with the Federal Trade Commission today about its proposed study of credit -based pricing practices for homeowners insurance. The World Privacy Forum requested that the FTC ask insurers if there are specific procedures in place for detecting, mitigating, and responding to consumers who have been victims of identity theft. The WPF noted its support for the FTC’s use of the FTC Act Section 6(b) authority to acquire robust information from the insurance companies.