• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, November 10, 2010

Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz told lawmakers this summer that the agency was considering proposing a do-not-track mechanism that would allow consumers to easily opt out of all behavioral advertising. Last month, FTC member Julie Brown also expressed support for such a mechanism.

So a report today in The New York Times stating that the Federal Trade Commission is "exploring" a do-not-track system for online behavioral advertising shouldn't be a surprise.

But, though the FTC is considering recommending such a system, the agency lacks the authority to mandate do-not-track. Yes, the FTC can certainly say it thinks that Web companies should figure out a way to implement a universal do-not-track program, but can't do much more absent new legislation.

And, while the Times article compares a do-not-track list to the do-not-call registry, the programs would differ in some key respects. Consumers who sign up for do-not-call are able to avoid receiving almost all telemarketing calls at home. A do-not-track registry wouldn't stop marketers from sending online ads to people. Instead, it would prevent marketers from trailing people online and delivering ads based on users' Web history.

What's more, any ad network that belongs to the Network Advertising Initiative already is (or should be) honoring a do-not-target mechanism -- the NAI opt-out cookie that allows people to opt out of behavioral advertising. Of course, the NAI program has a few drawbacks. One is that not every company participates. Another is that consumers often delete their cookies -- including their opt-out cookies. (Last year the NAI attempted to deal with this scenario by introducing a beta version of an opt-out browser plug-in for Firefox.) Yet another drawback, explains Jim Brock at Privacy Choice, is that companies who participate in the NAI program promise only that they won't send consumers targeted ads, not that they won't track users.

Still, in principle, the NAI already offers something similar to what the FTC is touting, but on a smaller scale. Expanding that program might mean that more companies are honoring consumers' privacy preferences, but wouldn't mark a departure from existing self-regulatory principles.