In a ClickZ Q&A, the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) new chief technologist discusses data tracking. Addressing what kind of do-not-track controls the FTC seeks, technologist Ed Felten said one of the FTC's aims is to allow users to opt out of tracking for behavioral targeting purposes, but the opt-out would not apply to first-party tracking for Web analytics purposes. "The FTC report recognizes that site publishers use analytics and audience measurement companies to help improve the publisher's services. As long as these service providers do not use collected data for other purposes, such as combining it with data about the user's behavior on other Web sites, these uses would still be acceptable," Felten said.
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