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An Open Letter to TRUSTe's Lori Fena

Posted by michael on from the following-through dept.

kuro5hin writes "Seeing TRUSTe chairman Lori Fena's name in the list of members of DoubleClick's new Consumer Privacy Advocacy Board was quite a surprise, but perhaps it shouldn't have been. In my opinion, TRUSTe has done more harm than good for online privacy. I explain why in an Open Letter to Lori Fena, which she, and anyone else who cares about their privacy on the web, would do well to read carefully. "

2 of 4 comments (clear)

  1. TRUSTe and informed consent by Howl · · Score: 2
    I think you are giving TRUSTe a bad rap. It was never intended to be privacy police (I was one of the group of five people who formulated the idea with Lori). Our intent was to codify an informed consent model.

    In a free country people get to make choice about how much information the do and don't give away - what TRUSTe seeks to do is give them background to make an informed choice. TRUSTe provides a level of confidence that an organization will keeps it's word - nothing else.

    I think where people get upset with this is that it's not an "implicit privacy" model in which all info is protected unless explicit concent is given. An implicit privacy model would probably be a good thing however it's a good first step to shine a light on whatever is already there.

    John Pettitt
    Former CTO Beyond.com & CyberSource (now retired)

    --
    Never underestimate the bandwidth of a truck load of tapes
    1. Re:TRUSTe and informed consent by Outland+Traveller · · Score: 3

      TRUSTe's goal of making sure that companies stick to their privacy policy is an important but small first step.

      By failing to take a public hard line against gross violators, however, TRUSTe has lost whatever small claim it had to legitimacy.

      What is needed to avoid government regulation of online privacy is an activist, consumer-oriented watchdog group and not a corporate-oriented organization whose implemention is tantamount to having the fox guard the henhouse.

      The underlying privacy goals need to be expanded as well, so that consumers can *at a glance* see how a company will use their personal data (now, and potentially in the future) without reading legalese.