Submission Number: 00188 

Received: 12/14/2010 4:23:31 PM
Commenter: Brian Watson
Organization: 
State: Oregon
Agency: Federal Trade Commission
Initiative: A Preliminary FTC Staff Report on "Protecting Consumer Privacy in an Era of Rapid Change: A Proposed Framework for Businesses and Policymakers"
Attachments: No Attachments
Submission Text
Just a quick note to say I fully support the FTCs efforts to enforce privacy. The Do Not Track functionality sounds like it could work and would take significant steps toward addressing privacy issues on the internet. I would add that I feel the best way to handle opt-in or opt-out is to have the default be complete privacy, with the consumer needing to explicitly opt-in in order to give permission for their data to tracked or used. There are far too many "you-must-click-ok-to-use-this" types of things out there, and while people should read them and investigate their options, the reality is very few actually do. Therefore, if informed consent is deemed to have occurred during such a click, most consumers would be unaware they have agreed to let their information and activities be tracked and used. Hardly "informed" consent at all.