The national “Do Not Call” registry has enabled Americans to spare themselves from those annoying telemarketers who always seem to phone in the middle of dinner.
Now Washington has in mind what’s being described as “Do Not Call” for the Internet.
In the name of protecting consumer privacy online, the Federal Trade Commission floated a plan in December that would allow Internet users to reject all forms of tracking through a single setting on their Web browsers.
The “Do Not Track” proposal would put government into the heart of e-commerce, one of America’s fastest-growing sectors — and we’re worried it could turn into “Do Not Innovate.”
There’s nothing like a far-reaching rule handed down from on high to kill a fast-growing entrepreneurial business, or drive it offshore. Done badly, a “Do Not Track” measure could lead to serious economic harm. Uncle Sam needs to steer clear, and give bright minds in the private sector a chance to solve a problem that, unlike unwanted phone calls, many Americans barely notice.
As it stands, tracking is routine, unfettered and a little scary. Advertisers can collect and share information about the searches conducted by any particular individual, the Web sites visited and the content viewed. They can analyze content on social-media pages, the groceries bought via store loyalty-card programs or a person’s precise whereabouts through location-enabled smart phones. Then they can share and compile the data to form personal profiles so detailed that many consumers would find it troubling.
Yet tracking comes with benefits. It makes search results more useful and precise. The ads that appear online based on specific interests and behavior might feel intrusive, but as a practical matter they’re preferable to random, irrelevant ads. A tracking ban also could interfere with online conveniences, such as when a site remembers a password or other account information, so it doesn’t need to be re-typed every time.
An outright ban on tracking would have other unintended consequences: Many sites and applications that now come free — Facebook, Gmail, etc. — might have a hard time staying that way. Web developers would struggle to make improvements if they couldn’t tell how users were running into snags. If the FTC were to short-circuit the online business model, it would put at risk tens of billions of dollars in commerce.
And would anyone be shocked if the ingenuity that gave us the Web in the first place swiftly neutered whatever policy the government imposed? Ineffective would be better than destructive, but what a waste of everyone’s time.
Fortunately, the marketplace is on the case. Just days after the FTC’s report, Microsoft Corp. said it will add privacy-control features to its Internet Explorer browser. That would enable users to create lists of Web sites they forbid from tracking them. It’s a more targeted approach than what the FTC is talking about. Keep those ideas coming.
