Saira Nayak
Director of Policy | TRUSTe
Our D.C. team, including our Board Chair Fran Maier, was on hand today for the White House press conference on the Administration’s brand new report Consumer Data Privacy in a Networked World: A Framework for Protecting Privacy and Promoting Innovation in the Global Digital Economy. This momentous document contains a number of important sections, but chief among them is a blueprint for a Privacy Bill of Rights. This Bill of Rights establishes baseline privacy standards around seven principles: individual control, transparency, respect for context, security, access and accuracy, focused collection, and accountability. The White House has tasked the Department of Commerce to lead efforts to unite the public and private sector in implementing policies based around these privacy rights.
TRUSTe applauds the introduction of this report and the Administration’s forward thinking vision in recognizing that consumer trust in technologies and companies is critical to the health and growth of the digital economy. We also commend the report’s focus on improving global interoperability of personal data use and data protection. As data flows become increasingly complex and globalized it’s crucial that we strive, wherever possible, to harmonize data protections across borders and jurisdictions. The White House report lays out a flexible framework that can foster privacy protections across all data platforms, from websites, to online ads, mobile apps, and cloud services. Technology evolution moves at breathtaking speeds and the only viable way to establish workable privacy protections is to create frameworks like this that are sufficiently flexible by remaining principle-focused.
“American consumers can’t wait any longer for clear rules of the road that ensure their personal information is safe online,” said President Obama. “As the Internet evolves, consumer trust is essential for the continued growth of the digital economy. That’s why an online privacy Bill of Rights is so important.”
This Privacy Bill of Rights reaffirms TRUSTe’s mission to bring transparency, accountability and consumer choice to corporate privacy practices and reflects the privacy standards of our certification program requirements. We have been in the privacy business for 15 years helping companies and consumers build trust online. Today, we stand as the only company offering comprehensive, end-to-end solutions that can address corporate privacy needs no matter the platform or context. In-ad icon-serving and cookie auditing are important aspects of privacy protection, but are ultimately just two components in a much, much larger privacy ecosystem that encompasses everything from effective mobile privacy notices to compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act or U.S.-E.U. Safe Harbor Program.
