| Adweek | - |
Privacy
is about to heat up again in Congress. Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.),
chairman of the Commerce committee, re-introduced his Do Not Track
Online Act, which will give consumers the ability to prevent online
companies from tracking them online and ...
Rockefeller Re-Introduces Do Not Track Act
Privacy heats up again in Congress
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.)
Privacy is about to heat up again in Congress. Sen. Jay Rockefeller
(D-W.Va.), chairman of the Commerce committee, re-introduced his Do Not
Track Online Act, which will give consumers the ability to prevent
online companies from tracking them online and using that information
for profit.
First introduced in May 2011, the bill never made it out of
Rockefeller's own committee, even though the powerful chairman held
plenty of hearings on privacy issues.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who co-sponsored the 2011 bill,
remains co-sponsor, but this time, Blumenthal sits on the commerce
committee, giving Rockefeller some added support. It also might help
that Rockefeller's bill no longer has to compete in committee with a
privacy bill sponsored by former Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Sen. John
McCain (R-Ariz.).
The bill would create a universal legal obligation for all online
companies to honor a consumer's choice to not have information collected
about their online activities. Companies would be allowed to collect
information necessary for a website or online service to function, but
they would be required to destroy or anonymize the information when it
is no longer needed. The Federal Trade Commission would be given the
authority to enforce the law.
"Online companies are collecting massive amounts of information, often
without consumers' knowledge or consent...My bill gives consumers the
opportunity to simply say 'no thank you' to anyone and everyone
collecting their online information. Period," Rockefeller said in a
statement.
Since Rockefeller first introduced the bill, the advertising industry
has rolled out an ad choices self-regulatory program that gives
consumers the choice to opt-out of targeted ads. The program, managed by
the Digital Advertising Alliance, which includes the Association of
National Advertisers, the 4As, and the Interactive Advertising Bureau,
has participation from more than 90 percent of the interactive ad
business. The program was even recognized by the Federal Trade
Commission as a good example of public and private partnership.
"We think we've made extraordinary progress," said Dan Jaffe, evp at
the ANA. "More than 5 million people have come to our opt-out site, but
only 1 million opt-out. When people understand their choices, the vast
majority are accepting targeted advertising. Getting non-targeted
advertising is like getting spam."
Despite the progress the advertising industry has made to
self-regulate, Rockefeller remains unconvinced that the program is
working. As he told
reporters following a hearing last year: "I don't trust these companies
to do what's right when they're up against the bottom line."
Remaining steadfast in his belief that companies cannot be trusted to
self-regulate, Rockefeller saw no need to change the bill, a committee
aide told Adweek. "Not much has really happened. The industry hasn't
stepped up; they've failed," the aide said.
"We serve the ad choices icon a trillion times a month. It's pretty
hard to say it's not working," countered Lou Mastria, the executive
director for the DAA.
Rockefeller also took a swipe at the industry for failing to "honor
do-not-track requests," a reference to the industry's recent decision to
not honor Microsoft's default Do Not Track browser. Microsoft's actions
pre-empted
the rest of the online ad industry, which was working to introduce an
opt-out Do Not Track browser solution by the end of last year.
The online "[i]ndustry stood at the White House and made a public
pledge to honor do-not track requests, but has since failed to live up
to that commitment," Rockefeller said in his statement.
Though privacy legislation is a priority for Rockefeller, his time his limited. Rockefeller said earlier this year he would not seek re-election in 2014.
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