Privacy matters: Consumers beware

(Part 3 of this Telephony special report. Click here for the other parts.)

Consumer groups are actively seeking new rules and new protections even as they admit that rapidly changing technology makes lines in the sand hard to draw.

Consumers are largely unaware of the extent to which what they do online can be not only monitored but tracked and recorded, according to lobbying groups focused on protecting consumer rights in the digital age.
And while the idea of getting content and ads targeting one's interests has broad appeal, the need to surrender certain privacy rights to receive personalized services is something of a slippery slope — made more so by ever-changing technologies.

“It is a much bigger and broader area than it used to be,” said Lee Tien, senior staff attorney for the Electronic Freedom Foundation. “It extends so much farther beyond just telecom and the FCC, which is why you see the [Fair Trade Commission] getting involved.”

Many consumers don't realize that technology can not only track online activity but also use it to create composite pictures that provide more details than many would willingly reveal about themselves, Tien said.

When newer technology enables location-based tracking, such as GPS chips built into cell phones, the issues will become even more complex, Tien said.
These concerns led a coalition of consumer groups, headed by the World Privacy Forum, to ask the FTC last October to implement a Do Not Track list similar to the Do Not Call list. The list could let consumers control who is allowed to track their online movements, much as they can control which telemarketers are allowed to call.

“The idea is that there would be some kind of provision that you could load into your browser that would block anybody from collecting information about your behavior online that was on the Do Not Track list,” said Brock Meeks, communications director for the Center for Democracy and Technology. “How that would work out is still up in the air.”

Making a Do Not Track feature work is only one of the many questions being raised as to how to best protect consumers. Minus clear technological answers, the CDT is proposing some general guidelines and would like to see baseline privacy legislation passed that provides broad coverage, not just for telecom providers and ISPs, but for all companies that track consumer behavior and buying habits, Meeks said.

“What we have right now is a patchwork of rules that leaves consumers confused,” he said. “For example, privacy rules that apply to smart cards don't apply to the [affinity] card you have when you go grocery shopping. Every time you use that, the grocery store is taking your information and collating it and selling it.”

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