Industry groups and companies reacted along already well-established lines to a Wall Street Journalreport that FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is considering a net neutrality order, with some hybrid version of Communications Act Title II, for a vote as early as the Dec. 11 commissioner meeting.
Long in a holding pattern, LabMD’s case challenging the FTC’s data security authority is set to move forward in the appellate courts. But LabMD’s stalled FTC administrative proceeding and ongoing congressional and FTC inspector general investigations will likely hamper the company’s chances at the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, lawyers told us in interviews. “If we didn’t think there were merits to our argument, we wouldn’t waste our time,” said Reed Rubinstein, counsel to LabMD and senior vice president-litigation government accountability advocate for Cause of Action. “We believe it’s appropriate, given all the circumstances in the case, to have another pair of eyes reviewing what the FTC has done."
Despite dire predictions and concerns, online advertisers are no longer worried about the imminent downfall of cookie-based tracking, they said in interviews last week. In December, Interactive Advertising Bureau General Counsel Mike Zaneis told us a swift downfall of the cookie -- precipitated by browser operators and the ongoing Do Not Track (DNT) discussions -- was “the biggest issue facing the digital advertising space.”
Despite dire predictions and concerns, online advertisers are no longer worried about the imminent downfall of cookie-based tracking, they said in interviews last week. In December, Interactive Advertising Bureau General Counsel Mike Zaneis told us a swift downfall of the cookie -- precipitated by browser operators and the ongoing Do Not Track (DNT) discussions -- was “the biggest issue facing the digital advertising space.”
Over a year after the FTC updated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) rule, the commission has yet to bring any enforcement actions, surprising many and leaving some in industry concerned about COPPA’s effectiveness. “It would be like shooting fish in a barrel to find somebody noncompliant,” said Denise Tayloe, president of Privacy Vaults Online (PRIVO), an FTC-certified COPPA safe harbor that tests its clients COPPA compliance. COPPA, Tayloe told us, “won’t get adopted without enforcement."
Over a year after the FTC updated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) rule, the commission has yet to bring any enforcement actions, surprising many and leaving some in industry concerned about COPPA’s effectiveness. “It would be like shooting fish in a barrel to find somebody noncompliant,” said Denise Tayloe, president of Privacy Vaults Online (PRIVO), an FTC-certified COPPA safe harbor that tests its clients COPPA compliance. COPPA, Tayloe told us, “won’t get adopted without enforcement."
The definition of data de-identification has dominated the Do Not Track working group discussions the past few weeks as the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)-facilitated group marches forward on a compliance document. Since mid-July, when group co-Chairman Justin Brookman, also director of the Center for Democracy & Technology’s Project on Consumer Privacy, released an updated list of de-identification definitions, the group’s public email listserv and Wednesday meetings have centered on the issue. Offered definitions range from one that dovetails with the EU’s strict definition to more general definitions provided by representatives at Apple and Adobe (http://bit.ly/1oHoeaV).
The definition of data de-identification has dominated the Do Not Track working group discussions the past few weeks as the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)-facilitated group marches forward on a compliance document. Since mid-July, when group co-Chairman Justin Brookman, also director of the Center for Democracy & Technology’s Project on Consumer Privacy, released an updated list of de-identification definitions, the group’s public email listserv and Wednesday meetings have centered on the issue. Offered definitions range from one that dovetails with the EU’s strict definition to more general definitions provided by representatives at Apple and Adobe (http://bit.ly/1oHoeaV).
Wide-ranging suggestions to create broad consumer privacy legislation flooded into NTIA Tuesday. Privacy and civil liberties advocates were nearly unanimous in favor of the White House issuing a legislative proposal. As expected, industry representatives, mostly tech and advertising groups, cautioned against any new legislation, although some offered ideas on government-enforced safe harbor programs and an audit of current commercial privacy laws. In its big data report (WID May 2 p1), the White House ordered NTIA to field comments before it considered whether to move forward with a broad consumer privacy legislative proposal.
A warrant requirement to access emails may get through Congress this session, said lawmakers, privacy advocates, conservatives and industry officials. But email privacy is just “a narrow fix that we think can stand on its own,” Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., told us. Other issues -- geolocation privacy, a definition of “electronic content” -- are far from settled, said those we spoke with. “This could be a multi-year effort to update various parts of the federal law,” the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), Rep. Kevin Yoder, R-Kan., told us. Yoder and Polis both sponsor the Email Privacy Act (HR-1852), which would require a warrant for law enforcement and government to access remotely stored emails (http://bit.ly/W4npD7).