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March 26, 2008

Shocker: Internet Advertisers Hate Privacy Laws

Internetnews has a good followup on last week’s news of a New York privacy bill that would curtail how much tracking and data-gathering Internet companies can engage in. Predictably, plenty of the companies that would have to gather consent to track users by personally identifiable information

“Calling Brodsky’s bill ‘paternalistic’ for trying to protect people from a phantom harm, the IAB’s Zaneis argued that educating consumers about what data are actually being collected would alleviate most people’s privacy concerns.

“‘Industry self-regulation has been what has protected consumers throughout the history of the Internet,’ he said. ‘Why don’t we hear legislators and consumer advocate talking about consumer education? If their concern is that they consumers don’t know what’s going on, why don’t they try to do something about that? My suspicion is because it’s difficult.’

“‘It’s easy to pass a law; it’s difficult to come e to the table with real solutions,’ Zaneis said.”

I think people do talk a lot about consumer education. There are all sorts of advocacy groups out there doing that work. I also think Mr. Zaneis knows that. More to the point, full disclosure and informed consent are key to consumers being educated. The New York bill requires, among other things, disclosure and consent. Rather than acknowledging some give on those issues, the advertising flack prefers to use loaded language and sweeping dismissals.

(Link)

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Posted by mhall at 5:48 PM | Add Comment