The Commerce Department is calling for the creation of a privacy bill of rights for Internet users. It would set rules of the road for companies that collect consumer data online and use that information for marketing and other purposes.
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The proposal, outlined in a Commerce Department report Thursday, is intended to address growing unease about the vast amounts of personal information that companies are scooping up on the Net — from Web browsing habits to smart phone locations to Facebook preferences. That data is often mined to target advertising.
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The Commerce Department proposal isn’t binding, but is intended to guide lawmakers and a White House group looking at issues of privacy and Internet policy.
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The new report proposes the creation of a voluntary, but enforceable industry code of conduct to ensure that companies give consumers clear notice about what data is being collected and exactly how it is being used.
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It would give consumers the opportunity to opt out of, or decline, some or all of that data collection. Consumers would also get the ability to correct errors in the information.
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The code would also set clearer limits on the use of this information and would require companies to secure the data they gather.
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In addition to broad industry-wide principles, the Commerce Department also envisions establishing specific codes of conduct for particular segments of the Internet ecosystem. Those could include social network sites, services that deliver location-based pitches to mobile devices and Web publishers and marketers that target ads based on a consumer’s browsing activity and other online behavior.
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The new codes would be binding on the industry. The Federal Trade Commission could take actions against companies that commit to abide by the codes and then don’t comply.
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And in what could prove to be one of the more controversial elements of the Commerce Department proposal, the…