This simple fact forces us to rethink our stances on privacy issues across the board because the problems surrounding privacy are so complex. There is no one fix, no one silver bullet that will cure all of the problems associated with protecting privacy. EFF therefore believes that employing self-regulation as the only means used to address the privacy concerns raised by online profiling of consumers on the Internet is not enough. There are several other steps that we should take that would better protect privacy. We need to build an architecture online that supports privacy.
Legislation is needed to fill in the gaps from our lack of strong privacy laws.
Stronger consumer education programs are needed to help consumers make more fully informed decisions about their personal information online. Fair Information Practices guidelines need to be strengthened to make them more enforceable and to provide meaningful remedies for consumers. No one of these steps alone can fully protect privacy, so we must look to a combination of technology, legislation, enforcement of fair information practices and consumer education together to solve the problem. We feel that it is useful to discuss each of these potential solutions separately so that if necessary, further workshops can be called to address each component. In these comments we will address the issues that we have identified with each component.