Some Web Firms Say They Track Behavior Without Explicit Consent

[flashl]

By Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 12, 2008; Page D01

Several Internet and broadband companies have acknowledged using targeted-advertising technology without explicitly informing customers, according to letters released yesterday by the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

...

The revelations came in response to a bipartisan inquiry of how more than 30 Internet companies might have gathered data to target customers. Some privacy advocates and lawmakers said the disclosures help build a case for an overarching online-privacy law.

"Increasingly, there are no limits technologically as to what a company can do in terms of collecting information . . . and then selling it as a commodity to other providers," said committee member Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), who created the Privacy Caucus 12 years ago. "Our responsibility is to make sure that we create a law that, regardless of the technology, includes a set of legal guarantees that consumers have with respect to their information."

Markey said he and his colleagues plan to introduce legislation next year, a sort of online-privacy Bill of Rights, that would require that consumers must opt in to the tracking of their online behavior and the collection and sharing of their personal data.

[gangstalking]

1. That is what is happening to society more and more.

This is what is happening to society more and more. Have you read about the Fusion Centers? Our information is soon going to be gathered and stored from birth to death, every moment recorded for prosperity.