A "do-not-track" provision could bog down a wider online privacy bill, and should be left up to providers until it can be considered separately, a privacy group said Wednesday.
If the debate is defined by a do-not-track option, which would allow Web users to opt out of third-party tracking, the bill may not move through Congress, the Center for Democracy and Technology worries.
The group's president, Leslie Harris, made the comments during a briefing with reporters on privacy legislation introduced earlier this month by Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., chairman of the Senate Commerce Communications Subcommittee, and John McCain, R-Ariz.
CDT has long favored comprehensive privacy legislation and was among the first to advocate for a do-not-track option. However, the group is not calling for its inclusion in the Kerry-McCain bill and instead favors the private-sector approaches already taking place. Browser makers such as Mozilla and Microsoft have started including do-not-track options in their Web browsers.
“We would have a concern if a big comprehensive bill became about do-not-track or kids' privacy... and we lost the main bill,” Harris said.
She noted there is still disagreement over what it means to track users for the purpose of creating a do-not-track option. Internet engineers who help set standards for the Web will begin debating that question Thursday at a workshop in Princeton, N.J., sponsored by the World Wide Web Consortium.
“It’s very early,” Harris said. “We don’t want to do anything that will squelch innovation” on do-not-track options.
Several other privacy and consumer groups including the Center for Digital Democracy, Consumer Action, Consumer Watchdog, the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, and Privacy Times have called on Kerry and McCain to include a provision requiring a do-not-track mechanism and mandating that companies abide by consumers’ do-not-track choices.
CDT favors many of the provisions in the Kerry-McCain bill, including its call for firms to abide by fair information privacy practices such as security, transparency, limitations on the use and collection of data, and a choice about whether data can be collected. The group, however, would like to see some improvements.
They include providing more incentives for companies to join the safe harbor program established by the bill. The bill would allow companies that participate in self-regulatory programs approved by the Federal Trade Commission to be exempt from some provisions of the bill.
CDT also said the definition of who is considered a “first party” is too broad. The issue is important, the group says, because those considered to be a first party under the bill do not have to obtain consumers’ permission when they use their data for marketing purposes.
When asked about the prospects for action on the bill, Justin Brookman, CDT’s privacy project director, said he believes there is a “pretty strong chance we will see something pass in the next two years.” He notes that many companies see it as a competitive issue and are urging Congress to pass privacy legislation.
Companies such as eBay, Intel, and Microsoft, which have endorsed the Kerry-McCain bill, say they believe consumers will feel more comfortable embracing new technologies and e-commerce if they know companies are required to provide some base privacy protections.
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