Monthly Archives: December 2010

Earlier this month, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) released a preliminary staff report entitled, “Protecting Consumer Privacy in an Era of Rapid Change:  A Proposed Framework for Businesses and Policymakers.” According to the FTC, the report is intended “to inform policymakers, including Congress, as they develop solutions, policies, and potential laws governing privacy, and guide and motivate industry as it develops more robust and effective best practices and self-regulatory guidelines.” Judging from the initial wave of public commentary,… More

On December 18, 2010, President Obama signed into law the Red Flag Clarification Act of 2010.  The Act will change a single definition in prior law and reduce the scope of the FTC Red Flags Rule, ending a two-year long saga over the scope of its enforcement.

As we have noted in past entries about Red Flags Rule compliance,… More

In January, we provided some helpful hints about passwords, in our entry:  Is Your Password Still "123456"? If So, It’s Time for a Change.

It’s been nearly a year, so it’s time to change your password again.  In case you need some help, we liked the guidance provided by the public radio program, Marketplace, in a recent broadcast.  Ironically, these recommendations come from an expert whose company’s password databases had just been hacked.  … More

Posted below is another contribution from my colleague David Broadwin on our Emerging Enterprise Center blog about the potential for legislative change in 2011. I agree with the conclusions he draws:

1. This is an area where bipartisan concensus is possible.
2. The industry powers will fight against “Do Not Track” and will win that fight.
3. Industry will accept some other form of regulation in exchange for defeating “Do Not Track.”

We could see passage of a federal data security and privacy statute,… More

Microsoft announced yesterday in its IE blog that it will be adding a tracking protection feature to Internet Explorer 9.  In particular, Microsoft promises that:

1. IE9 will offer consumers a new opt-in mechanism (“Tracking Protection”) to identify and block many forms of undesired tracking.
2. “Tracking Protection Lists” will enable consumers to control what third-party site content can track them when they’re online.

Together with the FTC’s jump into the tracking fray last week,… More

Our colleagues in Foley Hoag’s Emerging Enterprise Center have summarized the FTC preliminary staff report, “Protecting Consumer Privacy in an Era of Rapid Change:  A Proposed Framework for Businesses and Policymakers,” which we posted on December 1.  We are cross-posting the analysis from their blog below.

It seems likely that the next two years will bring significant changes to this area,… More

Earlier today, the FTC released a preliminary staff report entitled, “Protecting Consumer Privacy in an Era of Rapid Change:  A Proposed Framework for Businesses and Policymakers.”  The report is over 100 pages long and suggests that changes need to be made regarding consumer privacy, stating:

Industry must do better. For every business, privacy should be a basic consideration –
similar to keeping track of costs and revenues,… More

This is a cross-posting of an interesting November 29 entry in Foley Hoag’s Emerging Enterprise Center blog, by Patrick Connolly and Prithvi Tanwar:

If your start-up’s website will collect user information…. and chances are it will, you need to start thinking about your website privacy policy. I have often spoken with founders who think that the website privacy policy is a “one size fits all,… More