FTC Updates Online Privacy Rules

The FTC is taking a licking but it keeps on ticking.

Consumer advocacy groups are faulting the Federal Trade Commission for not protecting Internet users as well as they think it should. The FTC last week instructed advertisers to better explain how they track consumers’ online activity but certain groups think Congress needs to legislate stricter protections.

The Progress & Freedom Foundation, a D.C.-based think tank, was among the critics that said the FTC is making necessary changes but not going far enough.

“The ideal state of affairs would be to create a system of tools and data disclosure practices that would empower each user to implement their personal privacy preferences while also recognizing the freedom of those who rely on advertising revenues to ‘condition the use of their products and services on disclosure of information’ – not to mention the viewing of ads,” wrote analysts Berin Szoka & Adam Thierer in a report issued last week.