Do-Not-Track legislation coming to the USA?
Next week, reports say that Sen. John Rockerfeller will be introducing a bill in the USA Senate to force companies to offer do-not-track options to their customers. The bill, called Do-Not-Track Online Act of 2011, will require online companies to offer a tracking opt-out or face consequences from the Federal Trade Commission.
Rockerfeller said:
Quote:
Consumers have a right to know when and how their personal and sensitive information is being used online – and most importantly to be able to say 'no thanks' when companies seek to gather that information without their approval... This bill will offer a simple, straightforward way for people to stop companies from tracking their every move on the Internet.
This will be the third bill introduced in the USA Federal Govt, and it may be the bridge between the more extreme versions that has the opportunity to get passed. The California govt is also debating its own do-not-track bill, which is being opposed by Google, AOL and Yahoo.
Personally, I would love to see these bills passed. IMHO, advertising companies are taking advantage of all the data they get with online tracking and its getting scary to hear what they know about anyone browsing online. Just think of the number of sites that use Google Analytics alone, then match that to your browsing habits and you can quickly understand the extent of the information being stored and processed by these big ad companies.
