Slashdot Mirror
Federal Trade Commission Wants More Online Privacy
orpheus writes: "According to this article, The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has completed a review of Web site privacy policies, and voted 3-2 to seek Congressional legislation to improve user privacy on the Web. According to Jason Catlett, president of Junkbusters Corp, the grading was "very easy", but most Web sites flunked anyway. "
When I read the summary of this article and then the article itself, I thought, "Damn, it's about time," and I was pretty sure that the majority of Slashdotters would feel the same. It seems that one of the things that most people here agree on is that corporations are eroding the privacy of online participants and there's really nothing anyone can seemingly do about it. Along comes a government with the ability to affect at least some change in these corporations and Slashdotters are like, "No! Government regulation will be the death of the Internet. Down with government. Boo. Hiss." What the hell do people want here?
I think it's naive of Slashdot to think that geeks alone are going to be able to convince corporations that they need to maintain the privacy of their customers. I think government intervention on an even more massive scale than the US government (read: international) is going to be required to safely ensure that we have access to what information is being collected, what is going to be done with that information, and who has the right to restrict that information. Corporations just won't do it on their own. I have never been to a corporate web site that would've passed the tests that the FTC used, and the tests were basic. They didn't cover anything about what was done with the information, only about how it's collected.
But Slashdot plays this out like there is no good side. We say, "Oo, corporations are evil," but when someone (read: the government) tries to help us out agains the evil corporations, we say, "Oo, governments are evil," and turn our back on one of our potentially greatest resources. How do you expect to reform the corporate world? By going around door-to-door like some geek Jehovah's Witnesses? The fact that Congress is controlled rather strongly by corporatist lobbiers means that these FTC recommendations have an uphill climb. We should backing them if we want to see any of these suggestions come to bear (and from the slant of past Slashdot stories and posts, I'd say that most in the online community do).
But what do I see when I finally read the posts? I see basically mistrust of the government and a refusal to take help from those who are offering it. Personally, I'll throw my support behind the FTC. I'd rather have a organization that is supposed to work for the people working towards my privacy goals than a corporation with absolutely no ties to me whatsover.
Since you're using THEIR network to operate over, they have every right to monitor and log ANY traffic over that network, including MAC addresses, IP addresses,
So your recommendation for privacy would be: 'buy the entire internet or shut up'? He is paying to use their network the same way you are (presumably) paying to use your ISP's network and your phone company's resources. Is it OK if your phone company pipes your conversations into the breakroom for the enjoyment of all?