GreenBkk Tech | FTC report to push stronger Web privacy but limited

FTC report to push stronger Web privacy but limited

By Diane Bartz

(Reuters) - Self-regulation by advertisers has failed to protect consumers using the Internet, but regulators alone cannot implement "do not track" rules, the Federal Trade Commission's top consumer protection official said on Wednesday.

David Vladek, director of the FTC's Consumer Protection Bureau, said the agency wanted to see privacy built into technology as it evolved.

In a speech shortly before the release of an FTC report on the subject, Vladek also said the agency wanted to make it possible for consumers to easily compare privacy policies.

The FTC is also considering "strong protections" for information on matters such as finances, health, children or an individual's location, he said at a privacy conference.

But industry efforts have been inadequate. "Self-regulation has not kept pace with technology," said Vladek.

Vladek said the FTC supported the idea of a "do not track" option, like the wildly popular "do not call" list that allows consumers to opt out of marketing calls to their homes, but could not do it alone.

"We have to simplify consumer choice and 'do not track' will achieve that goal," he said. "I don't think that under the FTC authority we could unilaterally mandate 'do not track.'"

The report comes as the FTC is under pressure to contain the growing strength and savvy of companies collecting Internet users' personal data and selling it to advertisers.

A recent report by a privacy group found, for example, that some websites that present themselves as a way for ill people to connect with other people with the same ailments were actually created by companies to collect and sell data on those people to market medicines to them.

(Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

Credit: Reuters (www.reuters.com)