AT&T: Equalize Privacy Restrictions by Cutting Telcos’, Raising Cable’s, Web Companies’
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- AT&T thinks restrictions on collecting and using information about customers and their actions online should be reduced for telcos and raised to the same level for cable companies and Web publishers, an executive said. Telcos come under “rules that other players in the environment don’t have,” and they apply beyond the wireline voice business that has long been heavily regulated, said Sherry Ramsey, assistant vice president for regulatory planning and policy.
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"We just want to have a level playing field and participate in the same way as other players,” Ramsey said at a meeting of the Telecom Council of Silicon Valley late Thursday. What’s needed for everyone are “common-sense privacy rules,” based on the Fair Information Practices, she said.
Ryan Calo, who runs the consumer privacy project of the Stanford Center for Internet & Society, agreed that all service providers should come under the same rules for secondary uses, third-party sharing and security of user information. But he indicated the rules for other companies should be raised without lowering those for telcos. The restrictions on carriers are appropriate not only because they “are heavily regulated in general” but also because they vacuum up vast amounts of information “by virtue of providing a service,” Calo said.
The FCC and the FTC are “struggling” with “who is supposed to be regulating in this space and with what authority,” Calo said. He called it a “turf war.” As a privacy advocate from outside business, Calo said, “You don’t want these agencies regulating too much."
It’s in Internet companies’ interest to hold themselves to privacy rules beyond those that U.S. law imposes in fields such as financial and health services -- no matter how odd that seems, Calo said. That corporate approach is needed for “brand protection and trust,” he said. There’s “ample evidence” that companies which follow this path “succeed” and those that don’t “have PR disasters,” Calo said.
"I think you'll start to see companies competing on privacy -- ‘We'll give you more control,'” said Scott Goss, Qualcomm’s chief privacy counsel. Companies’ being open about their practices and policies and giving users control over information about them is much more effective in protecting privacy than efforts based on consent, which often means little more than a “click-through” by the customer, he said.
Privacy-protecting technology businesses are emerging in both business-to-business and business-to-consumer markets, speakers said. Calo talked up Abine, whose browser plug-in is billed as managing a user’s passwords, dealings with Web cookies and beacons and other personal information matters online. He puts more stock in technology tools than “bills of rights,” which are by nature “aspirational,” he said.
Qualcomm’s interest in privacy is growing as the company increasingly becomes “a data creator,” not just “an enabler,” Goss said. This is coming about through the extension of its business into products such as sensors, altimeters, GPS devices and monitors of everything from temperatures to health measurements such as glucose levels and heart rates, he said. “We have an interest in making sure that data is used appropriately,” in line with the desires of the people they're about.
It’s unhelpful to think in terms of consumers owning their data, said Jim Dempsey, the Center for Democracy & Technology’s vice president for public policy. He said the concept is “powerful” but he’s “skeptical” of it. “If I own it, I can sell it,” Dempsey said. A homeowner can’t claim a house back once it’s sold, he said. But a customer who doesn’t like what a company starts doing with personal information should be able to “reel it back in,” he said.