I appeared on NPR’s Diane Rehm Show this morning to participate in an hourlong segment entitled, New Concerns Over Online Privacy. Our panel in the studio included Washington Post Tech Reporter Cecilia Kang and EPIC President Marc Rotenberg, and we were joined on the phone by Congressman Ed Markey, Co-Chair of the Congressional Privacy Caucus, and Stanford researcher, Jonathan Mayer.
I brought the perspective of small business app developers who want to do the right thing and are taking steps to learn about privacy laws and how to comply. I also highlighted the success of the online marketplace in the U.S. having borrowed a page from the TV playbook providing free or low-cost content funded through advertising. However, despite all the positive stories I had to share about the responsible steps the app industry is taking to protect online privacy, our host and every one of the panelists could not move beyond the topic of Google and the negative impact it is having on the privacy discussion.
Congressman Markey criticized the company for a pattern of privacy violations, while the others had choice words for the search giant’s latest controversies – its new privacy policy and having been exposed overriding the anti-tracking preferences of Safari (Apple) browser users. It is understandable that my fellow panelists would focus their attention on these issues given the amount of attention they have attracted, but it underscores the problem faced by small business technology firms. When bad actors continually ignore the law and violate consumer privacy, government feels compelled to step in and impose regulations that are difficult for the entire industry, not merely the lawbreakers.
Marc Rotenberg made the point that the latest transgression is in violation of the FTC’s Google consent decree which included the Commission’s biggest ever privacy penalty. Considerable fines may be levied for violations of the decree, but these penalties have yet to stop Google. The company was fined $500,000,000 last fall for facilitating the sale of illegal and counterfeit prescription drugs in the U.S. But even today, if you type “Vicodin without” on the Google search page it will autofill suggesting “Vicodin without prescriptions” leading to sites selling potentially dangerous counterfeit drugs.
Clearly, the FTC has yet to find where the pain point is for Google. We strongly urge the Commission not to conclude that the only way to fix one company’s problem is to punish the entire industry. Let’s address this problem at its root and avoid the collateral damage that could harm small business innovators who are acting responsibly.
Here is a link to the hour long show, and below are some clips of my thoughts.
Transparency Key for App Developers
Advertising Has Helped Industry Grow
Google’s Bad Behavior Has Led to FTC Action
Unfortunately This is a Pattern of Bad Behavior