Federal Trade Commission Releases Final Consumer Privacy Report

For the past couple years, the Federal Trade Commission has been studying, learning, and enforcing consumer privacy. They’ve even gone after Google and Facebook for their less-than-praiseworthy privacy in the past. After hearing from everyday people, people within the tech industry, consumers, developers, and everyone else you can think of, they have put together their final report on consumer privacy detailing what they have done and what the new framework of basic privacy rules looks like.

The framework includes (taken from the report itself (.pdf)):

• Do Not Track: As discussed above, industry has made significant progress in implementing Do Not Track. The browser vendors have developed tools that consumers can use to signal that they do not want to be tracked; the Digital Advertising Alliance (“DAA”) has developed its own icon-based tool and has committed to honor the browser tools; and the World Wide Web Consortium (“W3C”) has made substantial progress in creating an international standard for Do Not Track. However, the work is not done. The Commission will work with these groups to complete implementation of an easy-to use, persistent, and effective Do Not Track system.
• Mobile: The Commission calls on companies providing mobile services to work toward improved privacy protections, including the development of short, meaningful disclosures. To this end, FTC staff has initiated a project to update its business guidance about online advertising disclosures. As part of this project, staff will host a workshop on May 30, 2012 and will address, among other issues, mobile privacy disclosures and how these disclosures can be short, effective, and accessible to consumers on small screens. The Commission hopes that the workshop will spur further industry self-regulation in this area.
  
• Data Brokers: To address the invisibility of, and consumers’ lack of control over, data brokers’ collection and use of consumer information, the Commission supports targeted legislation – similar to that contained in several of the data security bills introduced in the 112th Congress – that would provide consumers with access to information about them held by a data broker. To further increase transparency, the Commission calls on data brokers that compile data for marketing purposes to explore creating a centralized website where data brokers could (1) identify themselves to consumers and describe how they collect and use consumer data and (2) detail the access rights and other choices they provide with respect to the consumer data they maintain.
  
• Large Platform Providers: To the extent that large platforms, such as Internet Service Providers, operating systems, browsers, and social media seek, to comprehensively track consumers’ online activities, it raises heightened privacy concerns. To further explore privacy and other issues related to this type of comprehensive tracking, FTC staff intends to host a public workshop in the second half of 2012.
  
• Promoting Enforceable Self-Regulatory Codes: The Department of Commerce, with the support of key industry stakeholders, is undertaking a project to facilitate the development of sector-specific codes of conduct. FTC staff will participate in that project. To the extent that strong privacy codes are developed, the Commission will view adherence to such codes favorably in connection with its law enforcement work. The Commission will also continue to enforce the FTC Act to take action against companies that engage in unfair or deceptive practices, including the failure to abide by selfregulatory programs they join.

If that wasn’t enough for you, you can read the whole report here, or just read the announcement here.