RSS Feed
March 26th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda In its long-awaited report on consumer privacy, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) called for designers of Internet browsers to stop allowing websites to collect sensitive data about users, alongside a host of recommendations for the telecommunications industry to improve user privacy and self-regulation.
The FTC wants users to be able to turn off tracking whenever they see fit. Some argue that tracking creates a better Internet experience, but others say it’s an invasive practice that should be curtailed.
[More from Mashable: 6 Apps Worth Downloading This Week]
The report first gave a nod to progress made in user privacy in the past few years, including the development of “tools that consumers can use to signal that they do not want to be tracked,” such as Google Chrome’s “Incognito” mode and Mozilla’s Firefox for Android, which also has a “Do Not Track” mode.
But, says the FTC, those features represent only one step in the right direction. The FTC will continue work with Internet browser manufacturers and groups such as the Digital Advertising Alliance to create an “easy-to-use, persistant and effective Do Not Track system.”
[More from Mashable: Legislators: Employers Shouldn’t Ask for Your Social Media Passwords]
“If companies adopt our final recommendations for best practices — and many of them already have – they will be able to innovate and deliver creative new services that consumers can enjoy without sacrificing their privacy,” said Jon Leibowitz, chairman of the FTC.
“We are confident that consumers will have an easy to use and effective Do Not Track option by the end of the year because companies are moving forward expeditiously to make it happen and because lawmakers will want to enact legislation if they don’t,” added Leibowitz.
During a press conference Monday, Leibowitz said he’s “very hopeful” that a Do Not Track system could be implemented without the need for legislation; nstead, developers should self-regulate without a law forcing them to do so.
The onus isn’t entirely on browser developers. The FTC’s report says all service providers need to be more transparent about the data they collect from users. Products that require geolocation, for instance, should be absolutely explicit about what they do with that location information, says the report.
Internet browsers aside, the FTC called for more self-regulation and transparency on the part of mobile service providers and “data brokers,” as well.
Mobile service providers should “work toward improved privacy protections,” says the FTC, including increased transparency — mobile customers should know exactly what their providers are doing with their data at all times. Download a new app in the App Store, for example? It should explicitly say what it does with your sensitive info, says the FTC.
To that end, the commission will be hosting a mobile privacy disclosure workshop in late May, which it hopes will result in more privacy self-regulation on the part of the mobile industry.
The FTC also announced its support of legislation that would let users access all the information held about them by “data brokers,” who collect knowledge about people and sell it to advertisers or other interested groups. The commission wants those data brokers to be more public and calls on them to create an open website where they reveal how they collect information and how they decide to whom to give the data.
SEE ALSO: Obama Administration Proposes ‘Consumer Bill of Rights’ for Online DataThe FTC’s report doesn’t have the power of law, but it provides guidelines by which it wants relevant companies to adhere. The commission can punish organizations that break its own privacy policies.
Do you think the FTC’s guidelines will help create more privacy for Internet and mobile device users? Sound off in the comments below.
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, PashaIgnatov
This story originally published on Mashable here.
Related posts:
Views: 0
Posted in 
Tags: 
