Do you care about online privacy? Then join me on Tuesday morning at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, where a coalition of ten consumer and privacy groups including Consumer Watchdog are hosting a discussion on data collection and privacy.
If you can't make it you can follow the event on the Web.
Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz will keynote the event and discuss the proposed FTC framework for protecting consumer privacy. Jonathan Mayer, from Stanford University's Security Laboratory will present a new study debunking the myth that digital data collection is anonymous. Featured panelists will document the harms that this loss of privacy entails for consumers in the context of upcoming privacy plans from the White House and the FTC.
One position I hope to counter is the all-too-frequent claim from industry that there is a tradeoff between privacy and innovation. If you protect consumers' privacy, the assertion goes, it hurts innovation and business.
Nothing is further from the facts. Online business would be impossible were it not for privacy innovations like HTTPS encryption that lets such data as passwords and credit card information be sent securely over the Internet.
Consumers need to have control of their data when they go online. Providing that through such things as a Do Not track Me mechanism will ensure people can trust the Internet, which is win-win for business and consumers.
If you'e in Washington at 8:45 am Tuesday, I hope you'll join the discussion. Please RSVP here. And if you can't make it, we're broadcasting the discussion on the web here.
