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Every month, Simpson comes to Washington to meet with staff on the Hill and regulatory agencies, journalists and corporate lobbyists. Simpson said he met last week with Jim Tierney, chief of the networks and technology section of the antitrust division of the Justice Department, and staffers about his petition for a broad investigation. Last year, he testified before Congress about privacy and competition concerns in Google’s book settlement.
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John Simpson, an official with Consumer Watchdog, was displeased with the incident. “Once again we see what happens when companies push the technological envelope with little concern for consumers’ privacy rights,” he said via e-mail.
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“The problem is that Silicon Valley companies rush to get technology out and they just do things and ask for forgiveness later,” said John Simpson, who works on privacy issues for Consumer Watchdog. “But too much is at stake.”
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Privacy advocates argue that the bill’s exemption for “operational” collection of data–allowing those practices to take place under an “opt-out” rule–gives advertisers far too much leeway. “This bill really adopts an archaic and bankrupt ‘notice and consent’ regime that we all know doesn’t’ work,” says John Simpson, head of the Google Privacy and Accountability project at Consumer Watchdog.
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Privacy advocates panned the bill during a conference call this afternoon, suggesting its lack of opt-out requirements maintain the status quo. “This bill really adopts and endorses an archaic, bankrupt notice and consent regimen that we know does not work,” said a representative of ConsumerWatchdog.org.
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“While the discussion has started on this privacy issue because of this bill, I can’t really say very much good about it,” John Simpson from Consumer Watchdog later said on the call. “This bill really adopts and endorses an archaic, bankrupt notice-and-consent regime that we all know does not work.”
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Consumer watchdog groups say a draft congressional bill falls short of its proclaimed intention of protecting the privacy of consumers using the Internet. During a conference call with reporters Tuesday, the groups said they would push for changes to the bill.
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The quest for comprehensive, federal privacy legislation has been on many a lawmakers’ wish list for years, and two House members took the next step this week with the release of draft legislation that would require opt-in access to sensitive online data, an expectation of privacy regarding third-party apps, and easily accessible privacy practices. Consumer groups, however, said the bill does not do enough and criticized provisions that would prevent stronger state laws or individual lawsuits.
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With behavioural targeting and privacy becoming hot internet issues, a coalition of consumer and privacy advocacy groups is taking their fight for online rights to Capitol Hill. The sizeable coalition – its members are Consumer Action, Center for Digital Democracy, Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, Consumer Watchdog, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Privacy Lives, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, Privacy Times, US Public Interest Research Group and the World Privacy Forum – says industry self-regulation has not provided meaningful consumer protection and legislation is needed.
Press Release
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Warning that “tracking and targeting of consumers online have reached alarming levels,” a coalition of 11 consumer and privacy advocacy organizations today sent a letter to Congress outlining the protections any online privacy legislation must include.
