U.S. Updates Internet Privacy Guidelines

Yesterday, the government updated its list of “guidelines” for how internet service providers and other online services
should handle your privacy.

The FTC’s revised code now asks internet services to inform users in advance that their data could be collected during searches. It also asks them to provide and “opt-out”. It should be noted that this “code” is just something that the FTC recommends and is not something to which companies MUST adhere.

The new document also advises ISP’s and mobile service providers to give users a detailed list of what they’re collecting and why.

“You may have a contract with your ISP and everywhere you go, they can be collecting information on you,” the FTC says.

Privacy advocates are already bashing the updated recommendations, saying that the guidelines don’t do enough to protect consumers.

“The time for baby steps to protect online privacy is long past,” says an exec from the Center for Digital Democracy in Washington. “The commission failed to protect consumers here.”