Advocates on board with ‘Do Not Track’ – National Consumers League

NCL supports the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) proposal to allow consumers to block advertisers from tracking them online. As David Vladeck, the Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection testified on December 2, industry self-regulation has to date failed to adequately protect consumers’ privacy. The FTC has proposed a “uniform and comprehensive consumer choice mechanism” for online behavioral advertising, likely as a feature of Internet browsers. Advocates at the National Consumers League support the FTC’s proposed rule for a simple reason: consumers want to control their environment easily and persistently. These days, the average consumer is barraged online with marketing offers from companies using tracking technology who think they know what their customers want — or are trying to predict it. We agree with the FTC’s position that such technology can and should be implemented in such a way that it does not undermine the advertiser-supported business model that has helped give consumers such a treasure trove of free and low-cost content on the Internet.

The beauty of this so-called “Do Not Track” technology is that doesn’t require maintenance of lists; it just lets online advertisers know not to track you. Experts say the technology for Do Not Track is easily adapted to smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices. We agree with Beth Givens at the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, who said: “online tracking is inherently offensive to people. The notion that there are electronic eyeballs following you as you surf the Web frankly bothers people.”

NCL will be following closely the debate over FTC’s proposal and the Do Not Track technology in particular.