p2pnet news view Advertising | P2P:- A team of University of California, Berkeley, students has just released a paper saying people are seriously concerned about who collects their private online information, and what happens to it.

It doesn’t specifically mention advertising but bottom line, that’s what it’s all about and now a senior Obama aide has, “warned that the administration will keep a close watch on online advertisers that track consumers’ Internet activity,” says Dow Jones.

“Online tracking and data collection, put together with inadequate notice to consumers about what information is collected and how it is used, raises critical privacy issues,” it has Susan Crawford, special assistant to the president and a member of the National Economic Council, saying.

She was speaking at a conference sponsored by Computers Freedom and Privacy and said the administration will ask online advertisers to use “rigorous self-regulation” practices.

Rigorous self-regulation? :-y

“These principles provide for transparency and consumer control,” she said. “We face this challenge of maintaining an environment that promotes efficiency, innovation, economic prosperity, and free trade, while also promoting safety, security, civil liberties, and privacy rights of ordinary Americans.”

Crawford reiterated Obama’s commitment to Internet openness and privacy, saying the White House wouldn’t monitor private Internet traffic.

The likes of Google, Microsoft and AT&T Ihave been forced to initiate, “voluntary attempts to address concerns from privacy advocates about the tracking and collection of online consumer data, in part to avoid stricter government regulations,” adds Dow Jones

(Cheers, Seth)

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seriously concerned – Users worry about online data collection, June 3, 2009
Dow Jones – White House Aide Warns Online Advertisers To Be Monitored, June 2, 2009
Susan Crawford – Susan Crawford Obama tech adviser?, March 25. 2009