Score one for the FTC--it's in the process of making an excellent call on internet user privacy rights!

I've been a critic of many decisions of the FTC--but not this one.

It was announced today that the Federal Trade Commission plans to back a "do-not-track" system for consumers to manage themselves.  Yes, the FTC endorsed the concept of browsers having a toggle switch of sorts that would give internet users the choice to have their internet behavior followed [i.e., tracked] or ignored by online advertisers and their agents.  

What's so amazing about this news--it's not yet an official FTC ruling, the Commission simply endorsed a staff report recommending this remedy to be pursued--is that this body has frequently opted for heavy-handed, across the board remedies; this one, however, simply puts the choice on how to handle the privacy threats to each of us [i.e., as internet users] in the hands of each consumer.  This would come in the form of expecting browser providers to have a "switch" that each user has the control of having his or her usage of the internet as private or trackable.  

It'd be a radical solution--let people determine the issue for themselves.

What makes this a radical notion is that is comes from a place--the FTC--that is known for blunt object solutions, a place where bureaucratic solutions are the order of the day!  The direction that the Commission is moving intends to give each internet user the control of their monitoring usage destiny!

This move is more than a little annoying to online advertisers--they have not self-regulated, but instead fully enjoyed the new technologies to follow online activity, all in the pursuit of a gee-whiz ride to studying consumers, mostly to make money in the process.  

But will this be better than the do-not-call list approach?

What will be interesting to see is exactly how this concept is operationalized:  Will it be merely a polite request by consumers to not be followed by online watchers of consumer surfing?  A request needing to recognized and honored in the breach.  Or will it be a mechanism that actually scrambles the signals of one's internet activity--not leaving it up to an honor system, in effect, to be to lived up to by advertisers? 

Time will tell what exactly is to unfold--but this is a good sign.  The FTC appears to be in the process of making a good thing happen!  Looks like now the delivery of the promise will be up to the browser development people.
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