FTC Fair Information Practice - Enforcing The Principles

Enforcing The Principles

Currently the FTC version of the Fair Information Principles are only recommendations for maintaining privacy-friendly, consumer-oriented data collection practices, and are not enforceable by law. The enforcement of and adherence to these principles is principally performed through self-regulation. The FTC has, however, undertaken efforts to evaluate industry self-regulation practices, provides guidance for industry in developing information practices, and uses its authority under the FTC Act to enforce promises made by corporations in their privacy policies.

Since self-regulatory initiatives fall short of ideal implementation of the principles (the 2000 FTC Report noted, for example, that self-regulatory initiatives lacked meaningful monitoring and enforcement polices and practices), the Commission recommends that the United States Congress enact legislation that, in conjunction with continuing self-regulatory programs, will ensure adequate protection of consumer privacy online. "The legislation recommended by the Commission would set forth a basic level of privacy protection for consumer-oriented commercial Web sites" and "would establish basic standards of practice for the collection of information online...consumer-oriented commercial Web sites that collect personal identifying information from or about consumers online... would be required to comply with the four widely-accepted fair information practices."

The principles, however, form the basis of many individual laws at the both federal and state levels -- called the "sectoral approach." Examples are the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Right to Financial Privacy Act, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), and the Cable Television Protection and Competition Act. Additionally, the principles continue to serve as a model for privacy protections in newly developing areas, such as in designing Smart Grid programs.

Main article: FTC Fair Information Practice The four critical issues identified in Fair Information Principles are:

Notice – data collectors must disclose their information practices before collecting personal information from consumers Choice – consumers must be given options with respect to whether and how personal information collected from them may be used for purposes beyond those for which the information was provided Access – consumers should be able to view and contest the accuracy and completeness of data collected about them Security – data collectors must take reasonable steps to assure that information collected from consumers is accurate and secure from unauthorized use. In addition the Principles discuss the need for enforcement mechanisms to impose sanctions for noncompliance with fair information practices.