Privacy Legislation on the Agenda

Posted by: Heather Green on August 14 I have a story up today looking into the push among some in Congress for privacy legislation and the issues around it. I was curious about how serious Congressman Markey was about requiring opt in. . That is requiring companies that do behavioral targeting, including Google, Yahoo, AOL, and Microsoft, to get consent before using tracking data to place ads. Markey’s office says the legislation is still in the planning stages. For instance, it’s unclear what kinds of targeting would fall under requirements that companies let consumers opt-in to letting their data be collected and used. Opt-in clauses could apply to DPI (deep packet inspection done by the likes of NebuAd) only, or they could include less comprehensive targeting, such as the methods employed by companies such as Google and... [read full story]