FTC Looking Into Do-Not-Track Option for Avoiding Behavioral Ads

Rockefeller calls for clearer privacy protections for average consumer

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 7/27/2010 4:52:04 PM

Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz says his agency is looking into a browser-level way for consumers to opt out of behavioral advertising.  

That came at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on online privacy Tuesday. He said that rather than having to make that decision web site by web site, a "do-not-track" option could be overseen by the FTC or private sector. Leibowtiz said that his guess was that most people want some ads targeted to their personal preferences and so would not choose a universal opt out for tracking, but he suggested it would be one way to make it easier for consumers to control tracking information.  

That recommendation could be part of a report the FTC is planning to release this fall.  

Senator John Thune (R-S.D.) said he wanted to be kept abreast of the do-not-track option consideration. Leibowitz also said other FTC recommendations would likely include getting businesses to "bake in" best practices for information protection and data sharing notice and consent, and ways to make information consent sharing policies clearer and available at the point of decision rather than several clicks away and buried in fine print. Leibowitz said that in most circumstances, opt-in privacy policies were best, but always when a policy is being changed or when the information is sensitive material like social security numbers, medical info or bank records. He said that given the FTC's limited rulemaking authority and lack of civil fining authority, the commission would continue to work with industry, perhaps prodding industry more than it would like, and that he was hoping industry would "buy in" to his recommendations.  

Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) made it clear from the outset of the hearing that he wanted to look out for the average consumer, not "a savvy computer whiz-kid" or "a lawyer who reads legalese for a living and can delve into the fine print of what privacy protections he or she is getting."  

Both Rockefeller and Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND), who co-chaired the hearing, related it directly to targeted marketing, painting pictures of consumers' buying habits being tracked without their knowledge or consent to build behavioral profiles.  

"Imagine this scenario," said Rockefeller. "[Y]ou're in a shopping mall. And while you're there, there's a machine recording every store you enter and every product you look at, and every product you buy. You go into a bookstore.  The machine records every book you purchase or peruse.  Then, you go to the drugstore.  The machine is watching you there, meticulously recording every product you pick up - from the shampoo to the allergy medicine to your personal prescription. The machine records your every move that day. Then, based on what you look at, where you shop, what you buy - it builds a personality profile on you.  It predicts what you may want in the future - and starts sending you coupons. Further, it tells businesses what a good potential client you may be - and shares your personality profile with them."  

Rockefeller said that scenario is playing out "every second of every day."  

The goal of the hearing was to figure out what consumers know and don't know about how they are being tracked online, what benefit they may get out of it, and what they can do to stop it if they don't want to be tracked. Dorgan, who held hearings several years ago during the flap over Nebuad's deep packet inspection technique for providing what it said was anonymized information about web surfers, asked Leibowitz what had been learned since then.  

Leibowitz said that one thing he learned was that there was a "fair amount of corporate responsibility." He said companies were pretty quick to back off the technique.  

He also cited the emergence of a coalition of more than 100 companies with "big internet presences" who were trying to come up with an easy way to opt out of targeted advertising.