Have the Munchies for Self Regulation of Cookies?

Today's Wall Street Journal reports ($ - sorry) that the 4As, ANA, IAB and DMA are expected to announce new guidelines to better protect consumers' privacy online soon. The joint recommendation is to give consumers more control by employing an icon that appears when a website is tracking consumer information. Clicking the icon would reveal what information is tracked and how it is being used.

Yawn. Yes, there are people who don't realize that websites work more efficiently when tracking applications ("Cookies" etc) remember your shopping preferences. And in return, few of us actually mind that websites serve up ads that reflect our wants and needs. Those who do can use Ad Blocker but bear in mind that these free websites we love could disapear with out our eyeballs seeing the ads! Cookies are pretty basic web tracking applications. But how we protect our privacy become considerably less clear when we participate in one of the multitude of social networking "quizzes." These "Which Back Street Boy are you?" quizzes quietly examine and quantify our demographics while we share our humorous test results with our "friends" online.

The 4As' industry self regulation effort followed closely on the heals of an FTC announcement that Sears agreed to enter into a consent order because its website did not effectively apprise visitors of Sears' collection and use of visitor information. The FTC had previously announced that it would allow the industry to pursue self-regulation, but wants meaningful guidelines for websites and consumers. Let your representatives know that self regulation and educating online consumers is more effective than increasing regulation. The Sears Consent Agreement makes it crystal clear that the FTC Commissioners are not going to be patient with the online ad industry.

Two important tips for online businesses arise from the Sears FTC action -- (1) Sears' website must now clearly, conspicuously display its privacy policy separate from the its terms of use. (2) Sears must provide a means to allow a visitor to agree or "opt in" before enabling the tracking applications to collect his or her consumer information. If this sounds familiar, the requirements in the FTC consent order are similar California's privacy statute. It would be a good idea to check your privacy policy now! Do you have one?

Lawsuit planned to challenge FDA tobacco regulation

Congress passed legislation on June 12 that places tobacco under the purview of the FDA. The bill, H.R. 1256/S. 982, was sent to President Obama, who announced that he would sign it, but the signing ceremony has been announced. The New York Times reported last Sunday that one aspect of the legislation -- the reimplementation of a 1996 regulation that restricts tobacco advertising within 1000' of schools and limits certain tobacco advertising and labelling to black text on a white background. It seems likely that the tobacco advertising regulation will be challenged on free speech grounds. The Congressional Research Service issued a report analyzing H.R. 1256/S. 982 suggesting that the 1996 advertising rules are unconstitutional. The Supreme Court in Lorillard Tobacco
Co. v. Reilly (2001) decided that the same regulation-- restricting tobacco ads near schools did not meet the four-part test for deciding the constitutionality of commercial speech regulation set out in its earlier decision in Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. v. Public Service Commission (1980).

Mr. Obama advocates an open and tranparent government process and actively solicits feedback, so make your opinion known by contacting the President here http://www.twitter.com/whitehouse or in email here http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/.