The Washington Post has a press release story about the launch of something called the Future of Privacy Forum:
A group of privacy scholars, lawyers and corporate officials are launching an advocacy group today designed to help shape standards around how companies collect, store and use consumer data for business and advertising.
Well, okay. That’s certainly something that I’d like to see get more attention. But what does this group bring to the discussion that the Center for Democracy & Technology, EPIC, and the EFF don’t already? Oh, here’s the answer:
The group, the Future of Privacy Forum, will be led by Jules Polonetsky, who until this month was in charge of AOL‘s privacy policy, and Chris Wolf, a privacy lawyer for law firm Proskauer Rose [ed. note – and also one of AT&T’s law firms] . They say the organization, which is sponsored by AT&T, aims to develop ways to give consumers more control over how personal information is used for behavioral-targeted advertising.
Because AT&T cares about your privacy.  Also from the press release story:
Mike Zaneis, vice president for public policy for the Interactive Advertising Bureau, which represents online publishers such as Google and Yahoo as well as advertisers such as Verizon, said online privacy issues have long been debated and that “having another voice in this area could help.”
Yup. I think it’s probably a safe bet that we can look forward to this group muddying the waters of most any privacy policy discussion in the near future. That isn’t to say this is an entirely useless voice – it’s expected to generally argue for “opt-in” tracking – but anything they issue should be viewed with the question of how it will benefit AT&T.
Mark Brooks
In other news, Michael Vick is opening a dog grooming/spa for animals that need a place to go when their owners are out of town.
Because we trust those who have proven to be incapable of being trusted.
Plin
It’s a classic case of issues management: they’re trying to take the lead on privacy matters so that they are positioned to influence any policy decisions in their favor. There’s nothing strictly wrong with that, and issues management isn’t in itself an ethically questionable practice, but it’s often used for nefarious purposes–or even just, as you say, to muddy the waters.
What I hate most are the Orwellian names these organizations invariably choose. “Future of Privacy Forum”? Sigh.
MB
Issues, regulation, and legislation management. You can bet they’ve got a polished set of rules and enabling leg (if required) all ready to go. They’ll participate in the rulemaking process, lobby hard, and give Congressmen the right letters to write and “facts” to cite. CDT and EPIC will work valiantly to react, but WaPo and others will write what’s (expertly) fed to them with the same skepticism and diligence demonstrated in this piece. What we’ll end up with is a policy that AT&T, as an ISP, is uniquely suited to take advantage of (to the exclusion of web advertising/tracking firms).
Let’s check back in 18 months.
Amit
sadly I think the citizens will have to invest in technologies to protect their own privacy even from their own service providers. lucky for me, I don’t have anything interesting for them to listen to.
Amit
besides, even the president can’t use a cell phone for fear of being tracked: http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/11/16/obama-ditch-beloved-blackberry/
MB
Not good enough. Sure, we buy locks for our doors, but it’s not an acceptable solution to a police force that’s checking for unlocked doors (and helping themselves to what’s behind them).
I’m a big advocate of widespread use of encryption for *all* communication, in theory. But there’s a ways to go before that’s practical. Been a long time since I could assume that someone had their own cert or public key. And it will be a long time until I can again, too.
In any event, it’s not just a question of individual privacy, but social privacy. Sure, I can protect my own info by refusing to provide it, locking it up, and/or lying about it, but when 90%+ of society isn’t aware of what’s being done, I still end up living in that society, shaped by forces using this information.