New Legislation to Allow Consumers to Opt Out of Online Web Tracking

Senators John Kerry a Democrat representing the great state of Massachusetts along with John McCain a Republican representing Arizona, recently proposed a new form of online privacy legislation that has the potential for the first time ever, to allow Web users to decide if they want to have their Internet activity tracked.

Kerry told a news conference that Americans’ online activity is being tracked, stored and shared “on an almost unimaginable scale, and that internet companies “can do virtually anything they want with our information and we have no legal way to make them stop.”

This collaborative dual party legislation would enable consumers to decide which, if any websites can track and then sell their online behavior. Currently, Internet users have almost no control over which companies can view their recently viewed sites, and what ways their data will then be used. This would provide a way for Internet surfers to decide what amount of their information is accessible by the public.

Another advantage through this legislation to consumers is less stress. If they opt out, they will no longer need to worry about what type of their intimate information is being distributed, and can instead rest at ease that they are fully protected.

The bill however, does not automatically stop websites from tracking consumers; instead it offers   consumers the advantage to take the extra step if desired of demanding that their tracking end. This will most likely occur through searching for links on websites and on ads to opt out.

I recently spoke to Greg Ott, CMO at DemandBase about the advantages to consumers that will brought due to this legislation. Ott commented, “At this stage, it is really just the beginning. What they have approved isn’t very pervasive and requires users to take action that will protect their privacy. It will have a big impact however on a lot of marketing, as online marketing is targeted based on tracking cookies.”

“Due to the fact that at this current level it requires users to take action, the next round of legislation that will allow users to take less action will have a much bigger impact. It could lead to a big trend in   the future depending on how much users take advantage of this.

On the future of Internet tracked Ott said, “This could be bring a dramatic change to the future of the industry. Although today’s changes are minimal, looking forward it could affect things on a much broader scale as they look and see how people respond. If users do in fact begin to opt out of tracking it could cause a huge ripple effect on online marketing, as almost everything related to B2C marketing and e-retail are based on personally identifiable cookies that are placed on users machines.”

The ACLU  don’t approve of the suggested legislation instead want a “universal opt-out”, that will let consumers end any and all tracking by using a type of national registry, similar to those already implemented on auto dialer systems, called the Do Not Call Registry.

This list gives people the option to easily register their home or mobile phone for free through the website, which completely eliminates telemarketers from calling the number once it has been on the registry for 31 days. If telemarketers continue to call, consumers can then take action by going as far as filing a complaint against the offender through the same website.