Internet Companies Under Fire

Internet companies have been in lawmakers sights lately over the treatment of information they gather from their surfers, and how well protected it really is. Essentially, these behavioral advertisers track where you have been and bring you related advertisement. That wouldn’t fly in real life, and people are tired of it happening online.

Lawmakers in the House are taking action. They are writing laws and other new documents that propose to limit the amount of unauthorized snooping that goes on when Internet companies look at your browsing histories. They also wish to educate the public on how they could better protect themselves while online.

While the bill is being debated in congress, there is not enough energy to go all around, with health care and energy conservation taking up most of the floor time. The issue isn’t pigeonholed though, and it will up for consideration next year.

Google, Yahoo, and other search engines and sites to be affected by this bill are a bit torn on where they stand: they want people to have their privacy, but at the same time, they make money through these advertisers.

Regardless, privacy advocates say they want all information to be an opt-in policy, where the user has to agree to release their information. Right now, it is standard practice for all Internet companies and sites to use an opt-out policy, where you have go and seek out the function which allows you to remain off of the list of information donors, otherwise, they will just extract it without asking.

There has been much controversy over opt-in and opt-out. It seems that it depends on the nature of the request: some information is harmless and an opt-out approach would be perfectly safe and acceptable, while at others times sensitive information is flowing and some would prefer an opt-in policy.

Big players are stepping up to the plate to deliver their opinion, and strangely in favor of the public! A FaceBook representative acknowledged that the site wasn’t quite clear about their privacy policies and will try and keep its users more informed and educated on what kind of information is shared, and perhaps even offer an opt-in type system.

In February, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released a report on their findings of self-regulation in advertising. In the report, they found some questionable incidents where questionable practices were occurring, and warned that the industry better straighten up its act, or the FTC will have to take more disciplinarian action.

At the meeting, few companies were questioned due to a late starting after a health care vote, but one concern did stand out. Some were afraid that limiting these advertising agencies will cause them irreparable harm, especially during these tough business times.

It will hard to find a common ground between the advertisers and their demographics, but a solution that doesn’t cripple the advertising companies while still maintaining adequate privacy for Internet surfers must be found.

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