Sunday, November 14, 2010

Watchdog Planned for Online Privacy

After many past administrations have avoided internet privacy laws, Obamas staff has taken the initiative on creating internet regulations. With the amount of personal information available on the internet and the increase in social networking this type of law is a necessity to keep the internet safe and private. Currently there is no law in the United States that protects online users except the FTC "which can take action only if a privacy-violating action is deemed "deceptive" or "unfair."
The Interactive Advertising Bureau, which is responsible for ads on the internet, is already trying to argue against any new type of privacy laws stating that "We believe we are living up to consumer-privacy expectations and are very advanced in privacy protections and innovations."

What actions should the United States take? Should they adopt stricter regulations like Canada or Germany?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703848204575608970171176014.html?mod=WSJ_business_whatsNews

2 comments:

  1. I am surprised to know that there is currently no law in the U.S. that protects online users. If this is the case, then I think the U.S. should definitely start working on regulations in order to protect online users. With the increasing number and interaction on online social sites, it is important that online users' privacy be protected. With the technology today, it is very easy for an evil-minded individual to steal someone's information/identity and use it for his or her own benefit. Capitol Hill should definitely put this issue on its agenda.

    By Christina Cheng

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  2. By currently having no law in place about internet security, this poses a public problem of the safety of online users. A form of direct government should be put into place by creating and enforcing a new internet privacy law. Would any restrictions on the law be necessary? For example, employers are the one group exempt from monitoring online emails, those of their employees.

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