FTC Privacy Framework Pushes For Regulation of Data Brokers

Trailrunner7 writes "The Federal Trade Commission has issued a new report (PDF) on consumer privacy and online tracking. Among the recommendations the commission makes is that data brokers make themselves known to consumers and be open and transparent about the data they collect. The FTC also says companies should be building privacy protections into their products by design, including implementing the Do Not Track mechanism once it's finalized. Data brokers are essentially an unregulated group of companies that collect, store and sell information about consumers and their behaviors and buying preferences. Privacy advocates and some lawmakers have criticized the industry's practices and called for some regulation. As a result, the FTC is recommending that the industry not only create a central site to inform consumers about the kinds of data they collect and sell, but also is pushing for legislation to address the industry's problems."

new agenda

[girlintraining]

"Okay, and the next item on the federal congressional budget... defunding of the FTC. All in favor? All opposed? Motion passes. We apologize to our corporate sponsors for the delay in identifying these activist accountants, and assure you that by the legislation passed will soon be defanged and rendered useless."

Please. The FTC is too small to make a difference here. Most of our personal data is shipped overseas anyway to strip it of any legal protections anyway. Remember HIPPA people? That's your private medical data. There's nothing preventing your insurance company from exporting it to an associate overseas, where there is no HIPPA and then selling that data back to a vendor in the US. There's a healthy market for this kind of thing -- it increases the number of rejects based on "pre-existing conditions"... it's very cost effective.

So if the government can't even protect your medical data, don't hold your breath about your personal data getting any protections.

Simpler

[Mikkeles]

It would be simpler to just not allow any company to retain any more customer data than is absolutely required to do its business (e.g. mailing address for magazine subscriptions) and retain no data on concluded business beyond warrenty info.

Re:Simpler

[0123456]

So then you just need a huge bureaucracy interfering with every company in the country to tell them what data is 'absolutely required to do its business'.

Or the company could risk being sued at any moment by someone who believes their data isn't 'absolutely required to do its business'.