A New Voice for Online Privacy Has Emerged in the US

On November 15, a private, US-based voice for online privacy appeared, The Future of Privacy Forum (FPF). Boasting an advisory board of scholars, lawyers and corporate officers of leading companies, FPF aims to ensure that "considerations around data retention, limitation and deletion are a significant part of the consumer privacy debate". Its overarching goal, says FPF, "is to bring transparency to online data practices. Our plan is to document practices, produce multi-media educational materials and commission reports and studies that provide consumers and policy makers with the real story about how their data is used". Co-Founders are Jules Polonetsky, formerly a senior officer at AOL and DoubleClick, and Christopher Wolf, an attorney who leads the Privacy and Data Security Practice Group for a leading US law firm. Of the 24-person Advisory Board, eight appear to be practicing lawyers, law professors or corporate counsel, with the balance coming from the technology sector or academics with a background in business or technology, including public interest and advocacy organizations. Some news reports linked the timing of the recent announcement with journalists' observations that the US President-elect has cited privacy as one of the technology issues that his administration will address and the fact that Senator Obama also has said he would appoint a Chief Technology Officer. For material on FPF's goals, the composition of its Advisory Board and for links to commentary from newspapers, visit: http://www.futureofprivacy.org/ Summary by: The Editor