back to article Feds issue final 'Do Not Track' privacy recommendations

The US Federal Trade Commission has issued its final report on the "best practices" companies should put in place regarding the collection of consumer information. "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 …

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  1. Dan Paul
    Windows

    No "Choices", No "Options", No Tracking or Datamining ever.

    When I click on the "Opt Out" button on an FCC Webpage it MUST work just like the Do Not Call Registry for telephones.

    If I get a call from anyone who does not comply I get to sue the perpetrator. If I get tracked or get custom ads while online I should get to sue the perpetrator.

    1. c2423

      Re: No "Choices", No "Options", No Tracking or Datamining ever.

      I don't see this as being the same as the do not call registry for phones - if you want to use the free services on a website in exchange for some tracking code and targeted advertising then that's your choice to use or not use the site. Whereas with the phone thing you don't have the choice to receive the call or not (assuming you didn't yet sign up for not being called)

    2. Martin Gregorie

      That could be difficult

      Unless things have changed since last time I looked, it can be a major problem finding who to contact (or sue) if you need to resolve an issue with some US-based websites.

      At that time I don't believe there was any legal requirement to publish a valid street address or phone number on the website. Does American law now require websites that provide goods or services to provide this information online?

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: No "Choices", No "Options", No Tracking or Datamining ever.

      "...it MUST work just like the Do Not Call Registry for telephones."

      You mean, "not at all?" - Do Not Call is weaker than a toothless tiger - a toothless tiger can still rake you with his claws. I receive (and report) numerous violations on a weekly basis, all on my cell phone, which was registered on the DNC list within an hour of my getting the number - and yet I constantly get:

      * abandoned predictive dialer calls

      * calls that "conveniently" have the required "name of company who called" given while the voice mail announcement is being given (so I never hear it)

      * calls that invite my voice mail to "press 1 to stop these calls"

      * calls that would require me to spend my money to call them back.

      You may want a Do Not Track that works like Do Not Call.

      I want a Do Not Track that works, period.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    No Opt Out from Government Surveillance

    It's ironic that the US government are so keen to protect its netizens from surveillance by private firms when its highly likely they are the worst offenders of all for mass snooping. It's received (perhaps not surprisingly) little mainstream media coverage (even The Register hasn't mentioned it), but NSA expert James Bamford has written in interested article in Wired about it. While the sources may have an axe to grind, NSA whisteblowers reveal that the agency is involved in (at the very least very dubious & possibly illegal) dragnet surveillance of all electronic communications data. They don't seem to be just recording who contacted who, but are actually scanning the contents of people's emails & search terms on Google. There seems to be a mania to record every type of possible transaction including financial records & even book purchases. Damn, they'll probably even make a note of this! Yet hardly anything ever appears in the newspapers. It's all left to fringe publications. GCHQ probably do the same.

  3. Dan Paul

    Do not call works reasonably well for something run by Government

    @ David Hagood, The DNC registry has worked reasonably well for me but I agree that there will always be those who do not follow any laws, including our own government.

    I still get robocalls but most of this is greatly reduced from what it once was.

    I have seen snooping by the FBI/NSA in the form of a small PC (Echelon) that a local ISP was "coerced" into connecting to his network so it could search for subjects and IP addresses.

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