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Obama Says Privacy Isn't Dead As White House Calls For 'Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights'

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The White House nosedived into the privacy debate this week, releasing a 'bill of rights' for the digital age. In an opening letter, President Barack Obama weighs in on the "Is privacy dead?" question. He disagrees with Mark Zuckerberg here:

One thing should be clear, even though we live in a world in which we share personal information more freely than in the past, we must reject the conclusion that privacy is an outmoded value. It has been at the heart of our democracy from its inception, and we need it now more than ever.

The White House is aware of the fact that lots of information about us is being sucked up every time we surf the Net or open an app on our smartphones, and would like to see more regulation about what is and isn't allowed in order to enhance consumer trust. The report calls on Congress to pass a "Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights" which the report outlines -- and which sounds similar to the version that Senators John Kerry and John McCain have been kicking around the Senate.

"They map well," says Justin Brookman, consumer privacy director of the Center for Democracy & Technology. "It may give that bill a push."

The White House hopes that industry groups will develop codes of conduct in keeping with our new digital privacy rights. The WSJ reports that "a coalition of Internet giants including Google" marked the White House's big release by announcing that they're embracing Do-Not-Track; while some tracking will still happen, you'll be able to opt out of customized ads and having data collected for employment, credit, health-care or insurance purposes."

So what's in this proposed Consumer Bill of Privacy Rights? From the report [pdf]:

  • Individual Control: Consumers have a right to exercise control over what personal data companies collect from them and how they use it.
  • Transparency: Consumers have a right to easily understandable and accessible information about privacy and security practices.
  • Respect for Context: Consumers have a right to expect that companies will collect, use, and disclose personal data in ways that are consistent with the context in which consumers provide the data.
  • Security: Consumers have a right to secure and responsible handling of personal data.
  • Access and Accuracy: Consumers have a right to access and correct personal data in usable formats, in a manner that is appropriate to the sensitivity of the data and the risk of adverse consequences to consumers if the data is inaccurate.
  • Focused Collection: Consumers have a right to reasonable limits on the personal data that companies collect and retain.
  • Accountability: Consumers have a right to have personal data handled by companies with appropriate measures in place to assure they adhere to the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights.

Some of these "rights" may just translate into even longer privacy policies. The one that stands out to me is the "access and accuracy" requirement. That sounds similar to Europe's "right to access" privacy law, which is what allowed Austrian law student Max Schrems to order his 1,222-page long dossier from Facebook.

Privacy watchdog Marc Rotenberg of EPIC calls them "very good principles."

"It's good to think about privacy as 'a bill of rights,'" he says in an email. "Users need privacy rights, not privacy policies."

Rotenberg's concerns lie with implementation and enforcement. The report describes a bit of a privacy Kumbaya, with the White House getting "companies, privacy and consumer advocates, international partners, State Attorneys General, Federal criminal and civil law enforcement representatives, and academics" to get together for discussion and "then develop codes of conduct that implement the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights."

"The White House does not have a real strategy and that is a problem," says Rotenberg.