• by March 16, 2011

At a Senate Commerce Committee hearing Wednesday in Washington, the Obama Administration called for an "online privacy bill of rights," while the FTC detailed progress on the "do not track" rules it proposed in December.

Assistant Commerce Secretary Lawrence Strickling told the committee that the "bill of rights" should be based on Fair Information Practices, with specific rules developed by stakeholders from business, consumer advocacy and academic sectors. He wants the legislation enforced by the FTC.

But six major public interest groups -- Consumer Watchdog, The Center for Digital Democracy, Consumer Federation of America, Consumer Action, U.S. PIRG and the World Privacy Forum -- warned that any "multi-stakeholder" process could prove detrimental to consumers if dominated by industry interests and not organized in a "fair and balanced manner."

Privacy guidelines, the groups said, should be fashioned as suggested by the World Privacy Forum in December, including equal representation by consumer and business interests in the process.

The FTC told the committee that consumer privacy could be balanced with industry innovation through "privacy by design" (building protections into everyday business practices), simplified privacy choices for consumers, and improved transparency (via clearer, shorter privacy notices.)

"Do-not-track is no longer just a concept, it is becoming a reality," said FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz, who pointed to recent changes by Microsoft and Mozilla in this area.

The testimony noted that consumers may want to opt out of targeted ads as well as any kind of behavior tracking, and that the following four issues should also be part of the do-not-track rules: Universal implementation, so consumers do not have to opt out as they go from site to site. The opt-out mechanism should be easy to find and to use. Choices should be persistent and not be deleted if, for example, cookies are cleared or browsers updated. The mechanism should be effective and enforceable.