Your Internet privacy is in Congress’s hands now

I had a long talk with the president last week (yes, that president) about how my readers were clamoring for something like an Internet privacy bill of rights so that they could tell those nosy online advertising companies to piss off. What do you know? Thursday morning, the White House called on Congress and the high-tech industry to enact a consumer privacy bill of rights.

Thank you, Mr. President. And thank you, readers, for suggesting it.

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All we need now is for the industry to agree on what those rights really entail and for Congress to pass legislation empowering the FTC to enforce those rights. That shouldn’t take more than, oh, 30 or 40 years — maybe 25 with a strong tailwind.

Today’s big privacy announcement came on the heels of controversies surrounding Google’s bypassing the no-tracking settings in Safari, the callous disregard thousands of companies have for Internet Explorer’s privacy preferences platform, and mobile apps that suck up all your personal contacts and store them on their servers without telling you. Also, in a few days Google will start converging all the data it has about you — your Gmail, YouTube, Blogger, Docs, Plus, what have you — into one big happy pile of juicy ad-friendly data. It’s no wonder people have their knickers in knots over privacy.

Cringester P. M., an intellectual property attorney who carries an Android phone, is worried what Google will do with all of the data it is syncing from his phone on March 1, the day of the Great Data Merge.

As a lawyer, I am required by my license to keep all my client stuff confidential, including their phone numbers and email addresses — some private that they give me because they trust me. Google has said starting 3/1 they will be “Hoovering” everything and there is not s**t I can do about it. What they will not say — and I cannot, despite many emails to all kinds of Google people, even get a BS answer — is whether they will use my Android or synchronized on the Web data to open channels to my clients for targeted ads. (All they claim is they will not sell, but of course they will not sell if they can sell use of the targeting channel over and over!)

I don’t speak for Google, but this sounds way beyond the pale even for the search behemoth. Will Google use your accumulated data to figure out who you are so it can send you annoying ads with greater precision? Absolutely. Will Google use your address book to send annoying ads to your friends with greater precision? That seems unlikely, especially given that Google is now in the crosshairs of the FTC. Still, it’s a question worth asking.

In a recent post, I suggested it’s time to regulate Facebook and asked whether we needed a national privacy law, lest our Web surfing habits end up costing us jobs or insurance or worse. The answer? A resounding yes. Reader J. M. writes:

It may or may not take a long time to percolate but in the end it’s going to be a freedom of speech issue. Even though “big brother” in this case may be private enterprise, if we cannot read different points of view or research information without suffering economic penalties and injustices of dignity and political labeling, we have allowed ourselves a great loss of freedom. That’s not the American way.

Today’s announcement of course is mostly politics. The White House took a stance that appears to be looking out for consumers while not angering the high-tech industry that heavily supports it, knowing Congress will likely do nothing. Still, that’s better than a “let the market decide” tactic, which is really no stance at all.

I’ll believe our government is serious about ensuring our privacy when it enacts serious penalties for companies that abuse our data instead of just issuing a wrist slap. As baseball-loving Cringe fan C. D. notes, “All the privacy laws in the world don’t amount to much if nothing happens to the violators.”

Privacy laws are good. Privacy laws with teeth are better.

Is the consumer privacy bill of rights a serious step forward or just more hot air? Vote with your fingers below or email me: cringe@infoworld.com.

This article, “Your Internet privacy is in Congress’s hands now,” was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Follow the crazy twists and turns of the tech industry with Robert X. Cringely’s Notes from the Field blog, and subscribe to Cringely’s Notes from the Underground newsletter.