Question

About 68% of internet users feel unprotected by current privacy laws. So 86% of them used privacy technologies to remove or mask their digital data. Internet privacy is a recurring discussion in congress, the FCC and the FTC as they struggle to determine the right balance of consumer and business interests. Is it the government's job to deal with the issue? Should Internet marketers adopt and self-regulate privacy protection policies? Must consumers be responsible for securing private technologies to safeguard their data?

Answer 1

Whenever we talk about being online, the information online and internet privacy, there are few things which are under the control of the individual while there are other things that may be beyond his/her control. To maintain internet privacy, we need to strike a fine balance of responsibilities among all the stakeholders involved.

Thus, no one stakeholder (government, marketers or consumers) can be held responsible alone. Every party has a role to play, which has been discussed below:

1. Role of the Consumers: To a large extent, the consumers are responsible for safeguarding their data. While there are some attacks wherein the marketer itself gets hacked, which is beyond the purview of the consumer, they can at least prevent attacks made on an individual level. By using strong passwords, enabling strong privacy settings, clearing caches and denying to accept cookies wherever it isn’t necessary, the consumers can secure themselves to a large extent within their scope of control.
2. Role of the Internet Marketers: The Internet Marketers to ensure privacy protection can play a very major role by enabling transparency in the usage of things like cookies and digital footprints. They can create simple to use features wherein a consumer may deny to accept cookies or profiling if the consumer doesn’t find it comfortable or intruding their privacy.
3. Role of the Government: The Government too has a major role to play for which several things can be done apart from creation and regulation of internet privacy laws. The Government can create awareness among the citizens regarding the right to internet privacy and the steps to be followed in case their privacy gets violated. The Government can also impose rules on the marketers to maintain transparency and to disclose any potential privacy threat if it occurs.