Federal Trade Commission Privacy Law and Policy - Chapter 6 Online Privacy

Abstract

This is the full text of Chapter 6 (Online Privacy) from Federal Trade Commission Privacy Law and Policy (Cambridge University Press 2016). This chapter introduces the reader to the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) historical and modern approaches to consumer privacy law.

This chapter explains basic principles of privacy law, including fair information practices, which form the building blocks of most privacy protections. It describes the cases and the landscape of FTC law on online privacy. Then it shifts to present half a dozen controversies critical to the FTC’s privacy stance: the dominance of rational choice theory approaches and their deficits, the "third party problem" in privacy, self-regulation in consumer protection, default choices, the consumer protection problems implicated by the rise of internet platforms, and finally, privacy by design. Other chapters in the book focus on children's privacy, spam, telemarketing, malware, financial privacy, information security, and international privacy.

Keywords: history, unfair competition, kidvid, section 5, online privacy, children's privacy, information security, spam, telemarketing, SMS, malware, GLBA, FCRA, FDCPA, Safe Harbor, public choice, rational choice theory

JEL Classification: 033, L5, K2