Do Not Track gains support, but will it really work?
Today, the administration of US President Barack Obama announced a blueprint for a "Privacy Bill of Rights."
The goal: "improve consumers’ privacy protections" and "give users more control over how their personal information is used on the Internet", all the while maintaining the internet's status as an "engine for innovation and economic growth."
To achieve that goal, the president has enlisted the help of some of the internet's biggest names, including Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL.
Can Google walk a mile in Microsoft's shoes?
Google and Microsoft are long-standing rivals. Microsoft, of course, has played the role of the old, stodgy tech stalwart, while Google has played the role of the innovative, quirky upstart.
But Google and Microsoft may soon have a lot more common. That's because the Federal Trade Commission, spurred on in part by complaints from Google's own advertisers, is reportedly opening a wide antitrust probe that will determine if the search giant is abusing its search dominance in an illegal manner.
FTC seeks input on Dot Com Disclosures revision
In May 2000, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a number of guidelines designed to help companies stay in compliance with numerous consumer protection laws as they increased their presence on the then-nascent commercial internet.
The FTC's Dot Com Disclosures (PDF) document largely explained how existing laws around advertising and disclosure applied in the context of the internet, and provided some specific examples.
Unworkable "Do Not Track" bills coming to the US
Online privacy may be one of the most important digital issues of the day, and it's only getting more important as more and more people use the internet more frequently.
Not suprisingly, government is increasingly looking to assert its role in the debate. Late last year, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a staff report suggesting that one attractive solution to many privacy concerns would be a Do Not Track mechanism that allows consumers to opt out of tracking.
The primary method of accomplishing this, the FTC proposed, would be a "persistent setting, similar to a cookie, on the consumer’s browser".
J.C. Penney part deux: look at our high-quality paid links!
It's been a bad week for J.C. Penney, which found itself penalized by Google and scrutinized by the media after a paid link scheme apparently orchestrated by an outside vendor -- now fired -- was uncovered and detailed in the New York Times.
Not surprisingly, J.C. Penney isn't sitting idly by. It's defending itself.
Will the OFT regulate paid tweets?
Marketers have been paying celebrities to endorse their products and services for decades, so it's no surprise that there's a booming market for celebrity endorsements via their social media profiles.
With the help of companies like Ad.ly, celebrities and 'influencers' are reportedly earning thousands upon thousands of dollars for a single tweet or Facebook status update.
In the United States, marketers paying high-profile individuals to tweet and blog about their products worried the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) so much that it developed guidelines around the practice.
The FTC's Do Not Track proposal: useless, harmful or both?
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has increasingly been taking a more active role in trying to make sure that online marketers aren't harming consumers. That has meant, amongst other things, keeping a close eye on marketing taking place through social channels. You know, Kim Kardashian's tweets.
Yesterday, the FTC issued a long-awaited staff report that "proposes a framework to balance the privacy interests of consumers with innovation that relies on consumer information to develop beneficial new products and services."
Beyond cookies: digital fingerprints may track personal devices
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued a comprehensive online privacy report calling on the industry to offer consumers a simple opt-out mechanism, i.e. a universal "do not track" setting on the browser. So what will the FTC think of the digital fingerprinting businesses a new crop of tech firms are trying to launch: targeting ads by tracking users' individual devices.
The promise is more accuracy and better targeting than cookies. But will the business model creep consumers out more than cookies already do?
Foursquare, kickbacks and consumers as media
Foursquare's founder Dennis Crowley has an idea: turn influential social media users into affiliate marketers.
At a panel discussion the other day, he suggested that if you mention a brand, or one of its products and services, and that mention generates revenue for the brand, "you should get some kind of referrer’s fee." He predicted that within a year, "there will be some way for [users] to get kickbacks" through social media platforms.
Apple to give developers guidance, Adobe a chance
Not sure why Apple hasn't permitted your awesome iPad app in the App
Store? Worried about developing an iPhone app using anything but
Objective-C?
Rejoice. Yesterday Apple made a major, unexpected announcement: it's going to be providing official guidelines "to help developers understand how we review submitted apps" and it's also easing restrictions on the tools developers can employ when developing for the iPhone/iPad.
