The firms doing the spinning for some of the financial meltdown’s biggest players have good reason to be worried. Their crimes, after all, went largely unnoticed.

From the Consumer Federation of America

“Privacy Roundtables – Comment, Project No. P095416.”

Cookie Wars, Real-Time Targeting, and Proprietary Self Learning Algorithms: Why the FTC Must Act Swiftly to Protect Consumer Privacy Comments of the Center for Digital Democracy and U.S. PIRG

4 November 2009

On behalf of the Center for Digital Democracy and U.S.PIRG, we want to express our appreciation for this new initiative on the part of the commission to ensure that consumer privacy and related safeguards are a fundamental part of the online experience. The new administration has brought new leadership to the FTC, especially in its chairman, director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, and senior privacy staff. Time is of the essence, however, as the commission has lagged far behind all of the latest developments in the interactive marketing arena, particularly in the important area of online data collection.

Written Testimony of Jeff Chester
Executive Director
Center for Digital Democracy
Washington, DC

Judiciary Committee Review of P.L. 2009, c. 230

15 October 2009

I appreciate this opportunity to comment on Maine’s Public Law 2009, Chapter 230, “An Act To Prevent Predatory Marketing Practices against Minors” (hereafter “Chapter 230”). I am Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD). CDD is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. Our mission is to help educate the public about the privacy, consumer protection, public health, and competition issues related to the new digital media marketplace. Along with our partner U.S. PIRG (the federation of state Public Interest Research Groups), CDD has played a major role at the Federal Trade Commission on data privacy and online marketing/consumer protection issues. In a series of complaints filed at the FTC in 2006, 2007 and earlier this year, CDD and U.S. PIRG pushed the commission to address the growing threats to consumer privacy and welfare that have emerged as a consequence of many online marketing practices, especially behavioral targeting.