February 2012

There was a lot of reaction from online privacy advocates and Internet companies to the White House’s “privacy bill of rights” — much of it positive.

• “The Administration would seek implementation of a Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights by way of enforceable Codes of Conduct that would be derived through a collaborative process involving multiple stakeholders,” said privacy expert Lisa Sotto. “But the Administration does not put its faith entirely in the stakeholders to implement the Bill of Rights through Codes of Conduct; the Administration also calls for legislation to enact the Bill of Rights into law, as well as stronger FTC enforcement authority.”
• Chris Wolf, the co-chair of the Future of Privacy Forum, echoed those comments, saying this is a “co-regulation” model, and one that he believes will help the U.S. address privacy in an era of changing technological innovation. In a statement, Wolf said he hopes lawmakers in Europe will look to this same model as a potential one for regulation.
• Privacy advocate Justin Brookman, of the Center for Democracy and Technology, also said in a statement that the announcement is a step in the right direction. He gave the advertising industry credit for voluntarily implementing “do not track” technology” in web browsers.
• The ACLU called it an "important first step. Day by day, we live more of our lives online, shopping, managing bank accounts and communicating with friends and family," said ACLU legislative counsel Christopher Calabrese. "It's crucial that the information we share is properly safeguarded. It's very encouraging to see the Obama administration making this issue a priority. Americans need clear and distinct policies in place when it comes to the kind of access law enforcement and private companies have to their online information."
• Consumers Union (which published Consumer Reports) and Consumer Federation of America said the announcement signaled progress toward more consumer control of online data collection and use. "By including a Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights, the government is emphasizing the importance of transparency, individual control, and the ability to access and correct personal information, and recognizes there may be a need to for heightened protections for children and teens on the Internet," the groups said.

The public has a right to know who is paying for advertising for politicians who put themselves before the public in election cycles. And I believe that it is in the interest of the community and the larger political audience to know exactly what a station has earned in an election campaign cycle and to know who purchased those ads. The Internet will not replace the role of the local broadcaster in the community. It will, however, change some of the practices. Transparency is now easily affordable and the coin of the Internet realm. The Federal Communications Commission must stand for that value and ask only that broadcasters offer the body politic the insight into the "who," "what" and "how much" is contributed in an advertising cycle in a campaign year.

[King is dean and the John Thomas Kerr Distinguished Professor of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.]

Canoe Ventures is shutting down interactive TV advertising operations -- closing its New York office and laying off 120 employees, including CEO Kathy Timko -- leaving about 30 employees to focus on VOD ads as its sole product, the company confirmed.

The decision to abandon ITV ads and dramatically pare back Canoe's mission came after a review by its cable operator owners, according to a Canoe spokeswoman. "It's the result of what the marketplace told us," she said. Despite Canoe's technical achievements, Madison Avenue did not buy the promise of nationally delivered interactive TV ads in a significant way. Among the reasons were that Canoe's reach across households and networks simply wasn't broad enough for the biggest marketers, and that the complexity of executing interactive campaigns didn't justify the additional time and expense. Canoe, in its radically slimmed-down form, will now attempt to create a national video on demand advertising platform that encompasses both traditional on-demand and eventually TV Everywhere. The company will be based in Denver and headed by newly appointed CEO Joel Hassell, who previously was chief technology officer.

Social media and the “democratization of distribution” has compressed the news cycle to the point where the half-life of a scoop is measured in minutes rather than hours or days. And judging by a survey of media attitudes that Craigslist founder Craig Newmark has just released, the number of people who care about who reported something first is rapidly diminishing — if it was ever that big to begin with. Instead, what matters most to readers and listeners and viewers is the trustworthiness of the source, whether it’s a TV program or a newspaper. Trust, as Newmark likes to say, is “the new black.”