Request for comments on priorities

1) Define tracking.  It is simply an embarrassment that we are this far in and haven't set out what we were trying to do.  I am not sure we can retrofit the upper floors of a building as we seek to build its foundation, but without a foundation I don't like the security of the structure.   I suspect that if this effort fails it will make a great case study in setting out objectives before you start working.

2) Consider goals and scope.  Along the previous lines - what have we set out to do?  Is there a harm we have set out to address or have we sought merely to assuage user concerns about a system they don't understand by deactivating such system rather than educating on the relative cost benefits of the system?  Are we here to enable informed user choice with respect to data collection and use? Only use? Only a specific use? Only a certain set of actors?  Are we well served meeting these goals by creating artificial distinctions like 1st and 3rd party which don't map well to common practices?

3) Provide explicit guidance with respect to choice requirements.  Given how far the requirements have moved from a common understanding of "tracking" and the limitations with regard to who those requirements apply, what does it mean to get consent?  By way of example, I'd cite a current browser implementation of DNT which reads "Tell websites I do not want to be tracked".  Holding aside that "tracked" now means what the spec implies and not what a common man would understand it to mean, there is still the greater problem that the common understanding of "websites" is  the 1st party site which you are visiting.  This leaves you with the incredible outcome that a common man's understanding is at direct odds with what the spec would actually require.  Given the redefinition of common terms (websites, track, etc), what can consent mean?  If we have arrived at a point where the complexity of the spec potentially does not allow for meaningful or informed choice, can this be remedied?

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Brooks Dobbs, CIPP | Chief Privacy Officer | KBM Group | Part of the Wunderman Network
(Tel) 678 580 2683 | (Mob) 678 492 1662 | kbmg.com
brooks.dobbs@kbmg.com

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