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The Obama administration recently introduced a proposal that aims to provide consumers with better protection when sharing their personal information with websites online. Dubbed the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights, the proposal is generating a lot of discussion and has already garnered the support of internet superpowers such as Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo. One of the biggest areas the new bill focuses on is targeting, a practice that has become common in the marketing world.

Do Not Track Evolves

Many pundits are viewing the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights as an extension of the Do Not Track initiative, a policy privacy advocates first proposed to the FTC back in 2007. The main result of the movement was the creation of new features, particularly buttons that allow users to opt-out of having third-party websites track their online activity via their browsers. Internet marketers fought hard against the proposal, even going as far as to widely adopt Tremor Video’s Ad Choices option, which lets users opt-out of video-based display ads. Unfortunately for them, their efforts have fallen on deaf ears as Congress and privacy buffs in general don’t have much faith in the self regulation approach.

• The Do Not Track movement appears to be moving forward in the form of the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights, and while it strives to eliminate the use of a technology marketers regularly use to target users with tailored advertisements, online tracking will live on.
• According to reports, the bill will still allow sites to track and subsequently collect data for market research and product development purposes.
• Another interesting point relates to data usage across Facebook and Google. From the looks of it, the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights will impose no changes on marketers utilizing data from the like or +1 button to target internet users.

No doubt, the proposed Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights has a lot of legs to it, but it all boils down to internet users having more control of their personal data. Lawmakers are aiming to arm consumers with freedoms such as the ability to know the fine details of privacy and security policies, correct inaccuracies in the data marketers have about them, and even limit the personal information they share. Seeing that many of the features lawmakers are pushing for already exist in some form, the real question is whether the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights will prompt action from the users it aims to protect.

Where Do We Go From Here?

The Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights is supported by some of the internet’s biggest players so more than likely, it will eventually receive the greenlight from Congress. Should it pass, the legislation will be enforced by the FTC and state attorney generals from individual states. Having support from the internet community doesn’t necessarily mean the proposal is a good thing for online business, meaning marketers and their advocates will likely be watching the ongoing developments very closely.

Image: “Missed!/Shutterstock“