Bruna Izydorczyk
Obama’s effort to enforce clear rules on privacy
President Obama took the initiative to convoke major technology companies – of course Facebook and Google are involved – to craft voluntary codes of conduct for handling consumer data based on a bill of rights for Web users. Among other reasons, this initiative represents a Congress answer to the existence of modern foreign rules on the subject – the European Directive on privacy – and also, an attempt to avoid cross-border issues on privacy/data control.
The development of such policies/rules will take place through meetings among the Commerce Department, companies and consumer groups. The Federal Trade Commission, which has the authority to act when companies engage in unfair and deceptive trade practices, would have the challenging mission to implement and enforce the standards approved.
However, the effort to create clear policies on privacy seems to be interesting for the companies, whom are interested in obtaining competitive advantages in well serving their consumers. As we all know, consumer’s trust is essential for the success of any business. Let’s hope that the future of privacy in US relies also in the collective importance of the matter, and not only in the economic analysis of this issue.
For more information, please see:
http://news.businessweek.com/article.asp?documentKey=1377-a5jAQ79TwrjI-2MRQR870NSTPL8TGO31UVR346I