A coalition of nine privacy organizations is calling for legislation to restrict the collection and use of behavioral targeting data. Letters were sent to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and two subcommittees from the Center for Digital Democracy, the Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Privacy Lives, the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, Privacy Times, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, and the World Privacy Forum.
The letters read: “Tracking people’s every move online is an invasion of privacy. It’s like being followed by an invisible stalker — individuals aren’t aware that it’s happening, who is tracking them, and how the information will be used. They’re not asked for their consent and have no meaningful control over the collection and use of their information, often by third parties with which they have no relationships.”
Opposing Ad Restrictions
But the coalition has fierce opposition. The Progress & Freedom Foundation (PFF) is speaking out with some strong words. PFF Senior Fellow Berin Szoka called the coalition members anti-consumer elitists who not only presume consumers are too stupid or lazy to make their own decisions about privacy, but also ignore the benefits to consumers. He said those benefits include more relevant advertising plus more and better content.
“Advertising has been the ‘mother’s milk’ of media in America since colonial times and the future of media depends on the ability of publishers to replicate that revenue model online,” Szoka said. “Micropayments, donations, subscriptions alone simply can’t fund a vibrant marketplace of ideas. Only personalized advertising can sustain publishers through the Digital Revolution.”
As Szoka sees it, regulatory advocates haven’t demonstrated any harm to consumers that would justify the sweeping preemptive regulation the coalition wants. Such regulations, he added, would strangle funding for new media and amount to an “industrial policy” for the Internet. Instead,…