Tech lobby outlines its own set of privacy regulations

The Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), a leading tech lobbying group in Washington (DC), introduced a plan for regulations to protect user privacy online, becoming the latest player to try to shape new legislation that the industry sees as increasingly likely. The framework from ITI, whose members include Google and Facebook, is designed to guide policymakers in the US and around the world as they weigh concerns about data privacy online, said ITI president Dean Garfield. It suggests that consumers should have to opt in to the use of their sensitive data, which it defines as “personal data consisting of ethnic origin, political affiliation, religious or philosophical belief, trade union membership, genetic data, biometric data, health data, sexual orientation, certain data of known minors, and precise geolocation data," except in cases where "such use is necessary based on the context or otherwise permitted under applicable law." The restriction wouldn’t apply to data that used an artificial identifier and was protected or that was fully anonymous. Garfield said he hopes that would push the industry to make such anonymization a standard practice.