By Joseph Picard: Subscribe to Joseph's RSS feed
July 28, 2010 7:19 PM EDT
On April 1, 2010 - April Fools Day - the British games retailer, GameStation, obtained the legal rights to about 7,500 immortal souls.
GameStation pulled off the Mephistophelean feat by adding a clause to its online privacy policy and conditions for using the GameStation website that said, unless the user opts out, the company takes possession of the user's "Immortal Soul." The company was making the point that few people read those conditions before accepting them. About 88 percent of users relinquished their souls that day.
Jon Leibowitz, chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, retold the story Tuesday to the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee's hearings on "Consumer Online Privacy."
"Most consumers believe a privacy policy protects their privacy," Leibowitz said. "In fact, a privacy policy delineates their rights and the lack thereof. Privacy policies do not generally protect consumers, and consumers do not generally read them."
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-WV, the committee chairman, ask if the American consumers who go online "fully understand and appreciate what information is being collected about them, and whether or not they are empowered to stop certain practices from taking place?"
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Misunderstood privacy policies, the ability of users to opt out of data collection and the tracking of users for advertising purposes were among the Senators' main concerns.
Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-ND, called the practice of Internet tracking "snooping."
"If you went to" a shopping mall "and stopped at Chipolte's, then Nordstrom's...then a jewelry store, then, maybe, Annie's Pretzels, then a bookstore where you bought Rolling Stone, Better Homes and Gardens and How to Make a Nuclear Weapon," Dorgan said.
"And someone followed you every step of the way, just over your shoulder, making copious notes on your behavior. Anyone would find that unbelievable," he continued. "They'd say who are you to be following me around taking notes? Yet that sort of thing is happening every day to people using the Internet."
The questions, Dorgan said, are who is gathering this information and how is it being used?
Representatives from Apple, Facebook and Google each said that their companies conscientiously serve their users and protect their privacy.
"Location data is collected anonymously in a form that does not personally identify you and is used by Apple and our partners and licensees to provide and improve location-based products and services," said Guy "Bud" Tribble, Apple's vice president for Software Technology.
Tribble added that Apple's privacy policy statement is "in easy-to-read language" and available by link on every page of Apple's website.
Bret Taylor, chief technology officer for Facebook, said the company connects "advertisers with people in a way that is unobtrusive."
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