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Privacy campaigner blasts FTC's federal limpness

Data-gobblers won't go on a diet on their own

The American Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is making a mistake by leaving web and data companies to regulate themselves, privacy campaigner the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) said today.

Responding to the FTC's report Protecting Consumer Privacy in an Era of Rapid Change (PDF) published yesterday, EPIC said the FTC "mistakenly endorses self-regulation and 'notice and choice'" as the way to protect consumers from companies skimming their personal data.

The report (covered by The Register here) lays out the "best practice" it hopes companies will follow to protect data, and pushes hard on "Do Not Track" recommendations.

EPIC has clashed with the FTC before, over Google's new unified privacy policy: EPIC claims that the FTC should have probed Google over the changes.

EPIC also said that the FTC should explain why it doesn't use its Section 5 authority to enforce its decisions. ®

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