Innovating Around Privacy

What a difference a summer makes in the arena of digital privacy. After years of hand-wringing, heel digging, and denials that a problem existed at all, the online advertising industry is now starting to work through tangible proposals for handling consumer and regulators' concerns about data. In July, a coalition of associations, from the AAAs to the IAB, issued "Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising" and promised implementation of standardized site labeling and user notification in 2010. The Future of Privacy Forum started researching and testing more effective messaging about privacy and online tracking. . And just this week a coalition of privacy and consumer protection groups petitioned the House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce with a long list of specific recommendations for future regulation and legislation, including the creation of a "Behavioral Tracker Registry" of companies that track consumer use online. As we addressed in our own panel on privacy at the OMMA Behavioral show in July, the industry now has some realistic policy prospects to ponder.