June Change Proposal: "tracking" (Issue-5) and "collect" etc. (Issue-16)

This has been Issue-5 and Issue 16 (I think they go together)

Issue-5

June draft:  "Tracking is the retention or use, after a network interaction is complete, of data records that are, or can be, associated with a specific user, user agent or device"

My suggestion (because I don't see how the word "records" helps):  

"Tracking is the retention or use, after a network interaction is complete, of data that is or can be associated with a specific user, user agent or device."
 
Comment:  I'm still unconvinced that a definition of tracking is needed.   The underlying thought is that users want to be able to say NO to a party’s:
a) Remembering data that is about or traceable to the user for a time longer than the transaction (sites clearly must 'remember' IP address to respond, for example)
b) Using data remembered about the user, or traceable to the user, and associating it with this transaction ("the IP address a.b.c.d is often Lee, or members of Lee's household")



Issue-16:  What does it mean to collect data? (caching, logging, storage, retention, accumulation, profile etc.)

The language below is adapted from the EFF/Mozilla/Stanford proposal, but IMHO is also fairly close to that in the prior editor's draft.

"A party collects data if the data comes within its control.

A party retains data if the data remains within the party's control after the network interaction during which it was collected is complete.

A party uses data if the party processes the data for any purpose, including for storage.

A party shares data if the party enables another party to receive the data or its factual or semantic content."

Comment:  A party might retain data indicating that the user is pregnant.  Telling another party that the user is pregnant would constitute sharing of that data, even if the actual collected data were not itself shared.  



-- 
Lee Tien
Senior Staff Attorney
Electronic Frontier Foundation
815 Eddy Street
San Francisco, CA 94109
(415) 436-9333 x 102 (tel)
(415) 436-9993 (fax)
tien@eff.org

Received on Wednesday, 26 June 2013 02:06:16 UTC