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Obama's new plan lacks teeth by leaving out a "do not track" requirement

Jewel Samad / AFP / Getty Images

President Barack Obama speaks during the AIPAC Policy Conference on March 4, 2012 in Washington, DC.

Cohen is the author of Nothing to Fear: FDR's Inner Circle and the Hundred Days that Created Modern America

This has been a tough few weeks for privacy rights on the Internet. Google changed its privacy policy so it can combine the information it collects from different sources including gmail, searches, and web browsing to make a more complete dossier on who we are and what we do online. And the Wall Street Journal reported that Google and other online advertising companies have been bypassing the privacy settings of people who use Safari, the popular Apple web browser.

(MORE: New Google Privacy Policy May Violate European Law)

In the middle of these privacy blow-ups, the Obama administration announced a new set of online privacy policies a 62-page document called Consumer Data Privacy in a Networked World: A Framework for Protecting Privacy and Promoting Innovation in the Global Digital Economy. The White House has the right intentions, but it is not clear that these policies will have the teeth necessary to effectively protect peoples online privacy.

Its no great secret what the fighting over online privacy is about. Many Internet users want to be able to browse the Internet, use search engines, and view websites without anyone keeping a record of it. People do a lot of things online that they may want to keep secret for example, looking up symptoms of diseases (which health insurance companies may consider in writing coverage) and visiting non-mainstream political sites (which the government might want to know about).

When technology companies keep track of online activity, privacy problems radiate out in all directions. These companies could sell the data to people who will do harmful things with it including employers, who could use it to vet potential hires. This kind of data can easily end up in the hands of the government, which can subpoena it from the tech companies and suddenly, we are living in a Big Brother state.

(MORE: Can You Be Fired For Your Genes?)

Link:
Will We Ever Get Strong Internet Privacy Rules?