Outgoing FTC commissioner dings Google, Internet companies on privacy

Outgoing Federal Trade Commission member Pamela Jones Harbour said that Google, Facebook and other major U.S. Internet companies need to better protect the privacy of their users or face stiff penalties.

"I am especially concerned that technology companies are learning harmful lessons from each other's attempts to push the privacy envelope," Commissioner Harbour said during an FTC privacy workshop, according to PC World and other accounts. "Even the most respected and popular online companies, the ones who claim to respect privacy, continue to launch products where the guiding privacy policy seems to be, 'Throw it up against the wall and see if it sticks.'" Commissioner Harbour, who is leaving the FTC next month, says she advocates "intolerance" toward companies that push the privacy envelope only to backtrack when consumers protest that their data has been publicly exposed.