Privacy groups ask Obama for stronger FTC

About a dozen leading privacy and consumer groups met with members of President-elect Barack Obama's transition team Tuesday to discuss the Federal Trade Commission's role in protecting consumer privacy. While participating organizations addressed a range of problems and potential solutions, the underlying message was clear: the FTC has for too long allowed industries to self-regulate their online privacy practices--to the detriment of consumers. "The FTC keeps moving the goal post on what privacy advocates need to prove" before it provides substantive regulation, said Chris Jay Hoofnagle, director of the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology's Information Privacy Programs. "The commission has taken this posture that allowed business interests to win by just showing up. Self-regulation in online privacy has gotten more than a fair shake." Hoofnagle took part in Tuesday's meeting, along with representatives from the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, the Consumer Federation of America, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Digital Democracy, the World Privacy Forum, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the Privacy Times, the Privacy Journal, the Consumers Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and U.S. PIRG, the federation of state Public Interest Research Groups. The groups met with Susan Ness and Phil Weiser, the FTC review team leaders for the Obama transition team.