By: Kimberly Chow
Last week, Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-W. Va.) reintroduced his “Do Not Track Online Act.” Under the bill, consumers on the Internet would be able to affirmatively choose not to allow companies to collect information on their online activities. The Federal Trade Commission would provide enforcement.
Rockefeller’s initial bill, introduced in 2011, did not make it out of committee, and last year, the Federal Trade Commission endorsed a self-regulatory alternative in its report, “Protecting Consumer Privacy in an era of Rapid Change.” Currently, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is assessing how consumers would send a Do-Not-Track message and what companies would do when they receive the message. W3C’s Tracking Protection Working Group has been meeting since September 2011, with an end date in April 2014.
Some commentators who have complained that this self-regulatory approach is too slow are welcoming the possibility of legislation that might speed up the process. But it remains to be seen whether the often-slow or ultimately unproductive legislative process is any more satisfying. While it’s possible that the bill may have greater success than it did two years ago because of increased public awareness of Internet data privacy issues and because its co-sponsor, Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal, sits on the Commerce Committee, it may yet turn out that the self-regulatory approach is the only way to get anything done.
http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/rockefeller-reintroduces-do-not-track-act-147610
http://www.w3.org/2011/tracking-protection/charter