America Online Inc., the world's biggest online services company, endorsed making consumers choose to be exempted from having their personal data shared Tuesday, but critics called it a flawed approach to protecting privacy on commercial web sites. Privacy protection should aim for informed decisions, not defaults,'' Jerry Berman, executive director of the Center for Democracy and Technology, a Washington non-profit that tracks civil liberties on the Internet, said. With opt-in, web sites tell online visitors what would be done with their personal data, including possible resale, and visitors make the decision to go along or go away.
Online technology allows far-reaching profiling of private behavior.
Congress is moving toward responding to the new technology at the behest of the Federal Trade Commission, which sought new powers in May to police commercial web sites. In fact, privacy notices without other substantive rights operate more like warning labels or disclaimers than actual privacy safeguards,'' the center's Marc Rotenberg testified. McCain said the Commerce Committee would hold more privacy hearings in January or February, in the next session of the new Congress. He committed himself to moving a bill out of committee and working for its passage in the Senate despite the opposition of much of the online world, which favors self-regulation. In throwing its weight behind new privacy-enhancing laws, AOL said the industry had come a long way in creating and promoting best practices for protecting consumer privacy.