ISPs, Marketers Propose Voluntary Privacy Guidelines Eager to prevent new consumer laws... Thursday Jul 02 2009 08:50 EDT New FTC boss Jon Leibowitz has promised that one thing he'll be tough on is consumer privacy. To prevent government from passing tough consumer protection laws (particularly ones that force marketing to be "opt in"), the marketing, advertising and telecom industries recently joined forces to come up with a "self-regulation" plan that has them adhering to a set of privacy best practices created by the industry. Companies like Verizon, who's interested in behavioral advertising, have stated that "public shame" will keep them honest about privacy. The new guidelines, pushed by organizations representing more than 5,000 companies, will be reviewed by Congress today, but as you might expect, consumer advocates think the guidelines are rather flimsy. |
funchordsHello MVM join:2001-03-11 Yarmouth Port, MA |
"Public Shame" does not keep a telecom honest...June 14, 2006 Testimony of Comcast Executive Vice President David L. Cohen: "If Comcast were to try to deny, delay, or degrade the Internet experience that our more than nine million cable Internet customers have paid for, how can we possibly expect to keep them as customers...Any provider that does not meet the needs of users will suffer from a serious backlash from consumers and policymakers." May 2007: » Comcast is using Sandvine to manage P2P ConnectionsSo Verizon (who I am really not worried about) is demonstrably wrong. That said, didn't we see a voluntary set of guidelines last summer as NebuAd was running around? In fact, haven't we seen 3-4 sets of voluntary guidelines since this debate started? Seems the only thing we've accomplished is to create multiple sets of guidelines! | |
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Re: "Public Shame" does not keep a telecom honest...said by funchords: That said, didn't we see a voluntary set of guidelines last summer as NebuAd was running around? There was one for the telemarketing industry as well, and we all know how well that worked. | |
| | jaminus join:2004-10-14 Arlington, VA |
to funchords
Statistically speaking, the vast majority of Comcast subscribers were unaffected by Comcast's implementation of Sandvine (right?) so it's not all that surprising that public shame alone did not cause Comcast to change its behavior. NebuAd-style DPI, however, casts a far wider 'net' than P2P upload TCP resets, so it would presumably incite 'public shame' to a greater extent.
Also, having multiple sets of privacy guidelines is probably better than having a single set. The same privacy practices that make sense for your ISP to follow probably wouldn't make a whole lot of sense when applied to, say, Google. Consider that nobody is (seriously) calling for a ban on Gmail, which is sustained by ads that rely on inspecting all user emails for keywords. If an ISP were to do this, it would be considered wiretapping (by many, at least). | |
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BabyBearKeep wise ...with Nite-Owl join:2007-01-11 |
Self Regulation works all the time.. Pfft.Yeah that whole public shame think is a real good deterrent. Worked well for Standford, err I mean Blagovic.. hmmm. Palin! It worked for her, she has no shame! Worked well for Wall Street? Umm Tobacco? Hmm, Big Pharma? Ugh nevermind. They'll probably buy their "self-regulation" for now, till some Senators daughter is served up some behavioral porn ads. | |
| Doctor FourMy other vehicle is a TARDIS Premium Member join:2000-09-05 Dallas, TX |
Give me the keys to the henhouse, said the foxSure, I won't eat any of the chickens.
HAHAHAHAHA!!!
Do they really expect the advertising/marketing industry to be above board about this?
I'm sure they'll find a loophole somewhere. | |
| | FFH5 Premium Member join:2002-03-03 Tavistock NJ |
FFH5
Premium Member
2009-Jul-2 10:17 am
Re: Give me the keys to the henhouse, said the foxsaid by Doctor Four:Do they really expect the advertising/marketing industry to be above board about this? I'm sure they'll find a loophole somewhere. There is a practical reason for Congress agreeing to let the industry self regulate whenever possible. And that is when they pass laws regulating companies, the industry can tie up the enforcement of the law in court for years. And then the industry often succeeds in gutting the regulation anyway. So, if Congress thinks they will get 50% of what they want thru threats alone, that is what they will settle for. | |
| | | POBRes Firma Mitescere Nescit Premium Member join:2003-02-13 Stepford, CA
1 recommendation |
POB
Premium Member
2009-Jul-2 11:46 am
Re: Give me the keys to the henhouse, said the foxsaid by FFH5:There is a practical reason for Congress agreeing to let the industry self regulate whenever possible. Yeah, because historically, "self regulation" has worked so well for oh, say, the financial services sector. | |
| | | | Jim Kirk Premium Member join:2005-12-09 49985 |
Jim Kirk
Premium Member
2009-Jul-2 1:53 pm
Re: Give me the keys to the henhouse, said the foxsaid by POB:said by FFH5:There is a practical reason for Congress agreeing to let the industry self regulate whenever possible. Yeah, because historically, "self regulation" has worked so well for oh, say, the financial services sector. Yes, thank you John McCain! | |
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Re: Give me the keys to the henhouse, said the foxWhat? You mean it was all republicans? Grow up your savor Obama pushed for some of the laws that caused the failure of the banks, not to mention others in the party. It went the same for the republicans also. Reason the two party system isn't working.
On topic though, I can see this as bad. Who's going to inforce the rules? There should be a law of penalties for them. | |
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nixenRockin' the Boxen Premium Member join:2002-10-04 Alexandria, VA |
nixen
Premium Member
2009-Jul-2 10:14 am
Interesting wording"New FTC boss Jon Leibowitz has promised that one thing he'll be tough on is consumer privacy".
One could easily read that as being tough on consumer privacy in the sense that he will help erode consumer privacy. Were one to want to remove all doubt of the intent, it should be written more like "he'll be tough on entities that endanger consumer privacy". | |
| El QuintronCancel Culture Ambassador Premium Member join:2008-04-28 Tronna |
Speaking of the financial Sector...Banks and FI's (so Banks, lenders, HR and Insurance companies) in Canada have to incorporate protecting your privacy into their business model.
If they fail to do this, you complain to the privacy commissioner and they slap huge fines on the banks.
Apply the same rules to Telecom, and other businesses who handle Personally Identifiable information...
Problem solved. | |
| | POBRes Firma Mitescere Nescit Premium Member join:2003-02-13 Stepford, CA 1 edit |
POB
Premium Member
2009-Jul-2 4:03 pm
Re: Speaking of the financial Sector...said by El Quintron:Apply the same rules to Telecom, and other businesses who handle Personally Identifiable information... Problem solved. Problem is, the enforcement body (if any) that assesses those fines (if any) will be so riddled with loopholes and otherwise watered down that any fine that is ultimately assessed will be chump change. It's not a big deal for a multi-billion dollar corporation to be fined for individual infractions. They spend millions more on their lobbyists and PR shills they pay to troll forums like this one to preach the gospel of how wonderful big bu$ine$$ is and how much more wonderful self regulation is. | |
| | | El QuintronCancel Culture Ambassador Premium Member join:2008-04-28 Tronna |
Re: Speaking of the financial Sector...I agree with you for the most part, except in Canada, the privacy commisionner is GOD when it comes to dealing with banks.
If you complain to the privacy commisioner the bank is up the creek litterally. I would like to see the same done to Telecom, good regulation, and a regulator with Teeth (unlike the CRTC we have right now, which is Basically Bell's bitch) | |
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