Privacy and the Internet II

No readings for the this week. This class session will be used to discuss the primary source of law that applies to the information supplied by consumers in their interactions with search engines and other commercial sites: contract.

Google Privacy Policy [1]

The privacy policies on the sites you visit, while technically not contracts, are often enforced as if they were contracts. Claims for privacy policy violations are generally commenced by the Federal Trade Commission through its Bureau of Consumer Protection. It enforces both federal law related to consumer affairs and rules promulgated by the FTC.

However, rather than adopt its own rules to regulate privacy policy on the internet, the FTC has advocated a self-regulatory regime.

FTC Report on Privacy Regulation: [2]

The European Union employs a statutory regime to ensure consumer protection of private information supplied to internet sites and the EU/US Safe Harbor Program affords US-based Internet Companies the opportunity to be certified compliant with the EU regulations, affording these companies certain protections in the event that the EU commences an action against a US-based company.

Safe Harbor Program link: [3]