FTC: protecting America's consumers--most of the time.

A recent article by the McClatchy Washington Bureau reported that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will not intervene in the battle between data-miners and Internet marketers--ultimately allowing them to figure out for themselves how to protect the Internet privacy of its users. So much for the FTC's catchy slogan of "protecting America's consumers."

The FTC's official statement on the subject is, "Self-regulation may be the preferable approach for this dynamic marketplace." With this being the way it is, new legislation won't even be considered until the new President takes charge next January.

This battle has been raging, and now it may be at its all-time worst. With more consumers worrying about their privacy and more companies using behavioral targeting to advertise to potential customers, Internet privacy is a volatile and touchy subject. Without help from the FTC, this problem will not figure itself out. Limits will be tested and boundaries pushed by companies to see how far they can take the tracking and recording of private information without getting in trouble for it.

While self-regulation is a start, governments needs to step in and do something. Self-regulating is not the final solution, especially when the two sides are on completely different ends of the spectrum...it will be difficult to self-regulate when the corporations want more information and the consumers don't want their privacy invaded. FTC regulations would make everything uniform and consistent.

One of the comments to the article stated it in the best words possible when considering using only self-regulation: It's like letting the fox guard then hen house...