FTC weighs 'do not track' registry for web activities

FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz told a Senate panel Tuesday that the commission is exploring the idea of proposing a "do-not-track" list similar to the national Do Not Call registry that would allow consumers to opt-out of having their Web activities tracked for advertising purposes.

Leibowitz discussed the proposal during a Senate Commerce hearing on online consumer privacy. The FTC is expected to release a report in the fall with recommendations on ways to improve online privacy. He said some sort of opt-out process such as a do-not-track mechanism for online behavioral advertising could be run by the FTC or some private sector entity. It might be similar to the federal Do Not Call list that bars telemarketers from calling numbers on the list.

Privacy groups in 2007 called on the FTC to implement a do-not-track list to give users more control over their privacy. A poll released in June found wide public support for such a list.

Leibowitz also said the FTC may recommend that companies detail the most "material terms" in their privacy policies in a small box so that they can't bury controversial practices in fine print.

He and some committee members noted that most average consumers do not read online privacy policies. Leibowitz said the FTC's proposal that Web sites feature important privacy information more prominently would help ensure that most average Internet users "don't have to sell their soul for not opting out."

During the second panel featuring representatives from AT&T, Apple, Facebook and Google, Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., was blunt in her concerns about online tracking. She and others described the practice of online tracking as akin to someone following a consumer around a store with a camera and recording everything they looked at or bought. Before coming to the hearing, McCaskill said she did a test search for a foreign sports utility vehicle and when she went to look at other sites she was presented with ads for foreign SUVs.

"That's creepy," she said. "That means someone is following me around with a camera. If this is taken to a logical conclusion, it could kill the golden goose."

Meanwhile, Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., said in a statement that he plans to craft a privacy bill with the hope of enacting legislation early next year.

"The Commerce Committee, under Chairman [Ernest] Hollings [of South Carolina] a decade ago, considered similar privacy legislation," Kerry said in the statement. "We have learned a great deal more about this issue over the past decade and working together I believe we will successfully enact this legislation next year."

House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., and Energy and Commerce Consumer Protection Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., also are working on privacy legislation. Boucher said last week that he didn't expect Congress would act on the issue this year but hoped it would be ready for action in the next Congress.