Crawford Warns Online Advertisers To Be Monitored

National Economic Council Susan Crawford warned attendees at the Computers Freedom and Privacy conference that the Administration will keep a close watch on online advertisers that track consumers' Internet activity. "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," said Susan Crawford, a special assistant to President Obama. Crawford said the Administration will ask online advertisers to use "rigorous self- regulation" practices. "These principles provide for transparency and consumer control," she said. Crawford said the Federal Trade Commission will evaluate self-regulatory programs from Web sites and Internet service providers and assess whether they provide adequate transparency, consumer control and "reasonable security of consumer data." The FTC will "determine whether particular practices constitute unfair and deceptive acts," Crawford said.