3C

Even when you are just clicking around the internet, some sites are collecting personal information about you, and you may not even know it. Many websites place cookiessmall data fileson your computers hard drive to track your movement around each site and to determine which pages and items you looked at, how long you lingered, and which links you clicked on. The benefit gained from this tracking is that sites can customize your online experience by knowing what items you have searched for or looked at. At the same time, your online behavior may be tracked by software that determines which ads you will see based on the sites you have visited. This situation worries privacy advocates who want firms to clearly disclose exactly what they are tracking, why they are tracking, and for companies to get the consumers permission before tracking. The Center for Digital Democracy and other groups have been pushing for a federal do not track listsimilar to the do not call listso that consumers can opt out of online tracking.

Although many sites post privacy policies to explain their data collection practices, consumers may not always notice these policies or understand what the data is being used for. However, sometimes companies take actions that seem inconsistent with their privacy policies. For instance, the pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly violated its privacy policy by inadvertently revealing the names of people who had signed up to receive information from its Prozac website. In response, the Federal Trade Commission ordered Eli Lilly to set up a system to protect customer data for the next 20 years and to report every year on its security processes.

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If you were on the marketing staff of Facebook, how would you address the concerns expressed by privacy advocates? How could they allow users to determine which information, if any, they wish to share with marketers.