FTC and Consumer Privacy in the Coming Decade

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The Samuelson Clinic and Annenberg School of Communication presented a report to the FTC about the deceptive use of privacy policies by websites.

According to a report jointly presented to the Federal Trade Commission’s Tech-ade Workshop by the Samuelson Clinic and the Annenberg School of Communication, web sites that use the label “privacy policy” are deceptive unless they obtain affirmative consent from consumers before selling personal information. This is because most consumers believe that the term “privacy policy” conveys specific protections prohibiting information sharing, and guaranteeing a bundle of privacy rights. The report, a collaborative document combining public polling research by Professor Joseph Turow of the Annenberg School of Communication, and human-computer-interaction research overseen by Samuelson Clinic Director and Clinical Professor of Law Deirdre Mulligan, also recommended that usability experts be involved in the design of privacy notices, and that the FTC set benchmarks to evaluate the performance of its public policy decisions.

Reports and White Papers

Nov 08, 2006

The FTC and Consumer Privacy in the Coming Decade

By Joseph Turow, Chris Jay Hoofnagle, Deirdre K. Mulligan, Nathaniel Good, and Jens Grossklags