Submission Number: 00009 

Received: 12/1/2010 4:31:50 PM
Commenter: Alan Burch
Organization: 
State: District of Columbia
Agency: Federal Trade Commission
Initiative: A Preliminary FTC Staff Report on "Protecting Consumer Privacy in an Era of Rapid Change: A Proposed Framework for Businesses and Policymakers"
Attachments: No Attachments
Submission Text
The proposal makes sense and should be adopted. In writing the rule, the agency should take great care, however, in guarding against the myriad ways that companies might manipulate the choice the consumer will make regarding allowing data collection. For example, the company might conditioning access to certain information or services on the consumer "agreeing" to allow the collection of data. For the rule to be effective, therefore, it should explicitly bar websites from providing any difference in content, services, browsing options, etc., where any difference turns on whether the consumer "agreed" to data collection.