It’s been a while since the minions and I indulged ourselves in a good privacy rant. You can consider that remedied with this post. The EFF is reporting the results of an FTC report on how companies abuse their users’ privacy.
It’s not pretty reading. Companies routinely use customer data in ways not anticipated by their users. That includes selling or sharing it with third parties. All of this is in service of their targeted advertising business, of course. They want to build a dossier about your interests and activities and have no concern at all for your privacy. They don’t even pretend that they do.
The EFF says that self-regulation and other light-weight solutions have failed and that it’s time for a legislative fix. Irreal is inclined to be skeptical about the utility of letting politicos into the room They almost always cause more problems than they fix. Still, something has to be done.
The EFF has several legislative fixes they’d like to see implemented. Companies whose business models depend on targeted advertising won’t care because they’ll find a way to circumvent them. That is, all except for one: outlawing targeted advertising altogether.
The ban would have to be airtight and carry draconian penalties. In Irreal’s, admittedly cynical, view that’s not going to happen. Even if such legislation were proposed, the lobbyists would drain every single drop of blood out of it. There is, after all, serious money involved.
The FTC’s recommendations are completely toothless and would easily be skirted by the advertising companies. We should, I guess, be happy that they’re at least taking notice.
Something has to be done before the peasants show up with pitchforks and torches. No one wants that even though the whining from the advertisers about how unfair it all is would be amusing.