By Rachel Chalmers
In spite of recent high-profile failures and the entrenched opposition of privacy advocates and the European Union (see separate story), one official in the Clinton administration says she still believes industry self-regulation is the best way to ensure the privacy of personal information on the internet. At the ninth annual Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference in Washington this week, Becky Burr, associate administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA)’s Office of International Affairs, admitted that the internet industry has not developed privacy policies as fast as the government had hoped. But she added: I don’t think that fundamentally changes the validity of that model. I have to say nearly two years later that I still believe that private sector was the correct place to come out.
Privacy advocates were unmoved. Self-regulation was flawed in concept as well as being an utter failure in practice, Jason Catlett, president of JunkBusters, told Reuters. Recent history would appear to support Catlett’s view. On March 24 1999, one of the two biggest industry-sponsored privacy watchdogs, TrustE, acknowledged that Microsoft had compromised consumer trust and privacy in its implementation of a Global Unique Identifier (GUID). But TrustE – which depends in no small part on Microsoft funding – let the Redmond software giant off on a technicality. Since the privacy breach had not occurred through Microsoft.com, TrustE said its hands were tied. As a model for industry self- regulation, privacy advocates observed that this situation leaves something to be desired.
