Think Ad Tracking Threatens Privacy? Tell the FTC.
Dec 21, 2007
While the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) voted 4-1 yesterday to approve Google's acquisition of DoubleClick after concluding that the merger won't harm competition in the online ad market, concerns remain about the privacy implications of such a deal. Which is why the FTC released a set of industrywide "self-regulatory" principles for online advertisers yesterday as well.
The proposal, which is based in part on the FTC's November townhall on behavioral advertising techniques, offers a set of suggestions for addressing privacy concerns, including:
- Inclusion of a clear, concise statement on sites, informing consumers that their personal information is being collected for behavioral advertising purposes and letting them know how they can opt out of that process.
- Making sure to provide "reasonable security" to protect consumers' data.
- Retaining consumer data only as long as necessary.
- Taking steps to get express consent from consumers to use their data if it's in a way other than what was originally agreed to.
- Only collecting "sensitive data" for advertising purposes if consumers have given their express consent.
The commission also raised questions about the possibility that tracking data could be used for other purposes without consumer consent or knowledge, and it's seeking comment on that and the other issues. To review the proposal and find out how to submit comments by the February 22nd deadline, download the PDF here.
For more info on yesterday's Google-DoubleClick decision and the EU's pending review, check out Ars Technica and this happy post by Google's Chief Legal Officer.
Tags:
DoubleClick, FTC, Google, Privacy
