David Vladeck, Director, Bureau of Consumer Protection, Federal Trade Commission
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
CONSUMER WATCHDOG HOLDS A CONFERENCE ON THE FUTURE OF ONLINE CONSUMER PROTECTIONS DECEMBER 1, 2010 SPEAKERS: DAVID VLADECK, DIRECTOR, BUREAU OF CONSUMER PROTECTION, FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION DEBORAH PEEL, FOUNDER, PATIENT PRIVACY RIGHTS JEFF CHESTER, CENTER FOR DIGITAL DEMOCRACY DANIEL WEITZNER, ASSOCIATE ADMINISTRATOR OF POLICY, NATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE JAMIE COURT, PRESIDENT, CONSUMER WATCHDOG JOHN SIMPSON, INTERNET PRIVACY DIRECTOR, CONSUMER WATCHDOG SUSAN GRANT, DIRECTOR OF CONSUMER PROTECTION, CONSUMER FEDERATION OF AMERICA GINGER MCCALL, STAFF COUNSEL, ELECTRONIC PRIVACY INFORMATION CENTER CHRIS SOGHOIAN, GRADUATE FELLOW, CENTER FOR APPLIED CYBER SECURITY RESEARCH, INDIANA UNIVERSITY GARY REBACK, COUNSEL, LITIGATION PRACTICE GROUP, CARR & FERRELL MELANIE SABO, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, ANTI-COMPETITIVE PRACTICE DIVISION, FTC SCOTT CLELAND, PRESIDENT, PRECURSOR LLC STUART BERNSTEIN, LITERARY AGENT MICHAEL CAPOBIANCO, SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY WRITERS OF AMERICA SALLEY SHANNON, AMERICAN SOCIETY OF JOURNALISTS AND AUTHORS [*] COURT: Good morning. Thanks for coming. I'm Jamie Court. I'm president of Consumer Watchdog, and I'm really glad to welcome you all here for the Future of Online Consumer Protection Conference. We're not only joined by many great guests in the audience but we're also streaming internationally on the Web, which is great because the weather is preventing probably a few people from getting here. So we're glad you all came. When we scheduled this conference two weeks ago we didn't realize it would be such a busy day. Today, as many of you know, the Federal Trade Commission is going to be releasing its much anticipated report on online consumer protections and the viability of a "do not track me" list which is, we hope, going to be great news. And we're going to get a preview I understand in a few minutes from our keynote speaker, the FTC consumer protection chief David Vladeck, who's going to be with us. We also had an action yesterday on antitrust... (AUDIO GAP) COURT: ... our European regulators... (AUDIO GAP) COURT: But we're not just talking about privacy at this conference. We're going to be talking about antitrust. We're going to be talking about medical privacy, moving beyond the "do not track me" list. We're going to be talking about Wi-spy. We're going to talking about the growth of online power by companies that have in large ways pushed the creative arts and creative artists out of business. And hopefully we'll be ending around 2:30 today and at the end of the day we'll have some solutions to take forward. I just -- before I bring out Mr. Vladeck -- I just want to tell you a few things about Consumer Watchdog for those of you who may not know. We started about 20 years ago in California and we opened a small storefront office in 2008 in the capital. Because we really believed there's a lot of hope for change in Washington. And we did work on health insurance reform, for some greater consumer protection, some other issues, but we really believe privacy now is the greatest hope for... (AUDIO GAP) COURT: ... change, and we believe it's because of a... (AUDIO GAP) COURT: ... industry who'd spent $60 million to stop the ballot measure. It passed, narrowly, and 20 years later it saved about $62 billion for consumers on their auto insurance bill. And that's from the Consumer Federation of America's report in 2008. It was the greatest reform of the property casualty industry and it was done only because Californians were so angry about their auto insurance rates. We pioneered patients... (AUDIO GAP) COURT: ... laws at the ballot box too because... (AUDIO GAP) COURT: ... when 90 percent of Americans believe in something it should happen. It should happen in this country. When a supermajority of people, more than 70 percent of Americans believe in something it should happen. From the same poll, what percentage of Americans believe that they should have a "make me anonymous button" on the Internet? Make me anonymous -- 86 percent of Americans. This is a real poll. Eight- six percent of Americans believe they should be anonymous on the Internet and yet we don't have this technology. Eighty-four percent believe we should prevent online companies from tracking personal information or Web searches without explicit written approval. Eighty-four percent of Americans. This is a very popular issue. Popular opinion is with us. Banning the collection of data for children, 84 percent. Supporting extending current advertising protections against -- about children beyond TV to the Internet, 81 percent. Requiring the creation of a "do not track me" list for online consumer protection -- for online companies that would be administered by the Federal Trade Commission. Eight out of 10 Americans want a "do-not track me" list. When eight out of 10 Americans want something there's a good chance they're going to get it. And that's why this conference was convened, to come up with solutions like this. So I'd like to -- I'd like to bring up -- before we bring up Mr. Vladeck, point out a few people in the audience who are -- who you're going to see today from Consumer Watchdog who are going to be moderating panels. One is Carmen Balber, who is in the back of the room. She is our Washington, D.C., director. She opened our storefront office a couple of years ago and brought this expose, confront, change plan to Washington, which isn't always easy. And another man who is going to come up and introduce Mr. Vladeck is John Simpson. Let me tell you about John. John is our internet privacy director, but John was a journalist for many, many years and before that he was a bit of a hell raiser, and after he got out of journalism he came to us and literally took on the stem cell research industry in California. We had a $3 billion plan for stem cell research and John made sure that when stem cell research grants were given out in California the public got a return on those investments. He actually busted up with the Public Patent Foundation patents for stem cell research that shouldn't have been given to create more stem cell research. And now he's moving on to other things. He's the director of our Inside Google Project. So let me bring up John to introduce Mr. Vladeck, and hopefully we'll hear from Mr. Vladeck a little bit about what the FTC's doing today. John? (APPLAUSE) SIMPSON: Thank you, Jamie. Good morning everyone right here in the room and also who are watching us on the Web. I've got a great pleasure to introduce David Vladeck who as you all know is director of the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection. They describe themselves as being the bureau which works to protect consumers from unfair, deceptive or fraudulent practices. The bureau conducts investigations, sues companies and individuals who violate the law, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I think of as the guys who get the 144-page complaint that a number of us have recently filed. We're the folks who sometimes make a lot of extra effort for David's office, and we're glad that he gives great attention to those kinds of things. We did join last week with the Center for Digital Democracy and the World Privacy Forum and USPIRG filing a complaint complaining about deceptive medical practices, and we'll hear more about that later today. David is on leave from the Georgetown University Law Center. He, before joining Georgetown, had been over 25 years with Public Citizen Litigation Group, which means that he really is a veteran of consumer protection and has seen it from all sides. So we've asked him to tell us as much as he can about the report that we all know is coming out today. He will also be testifying, I believe, tomorrow before Bobby Rush's committee. I suspect he might be able to say a little bit about that. Washington protocol of course is that he can't say a lot about that. But we do welcome him to offer his views as much as he can on those things, and he's agreed to take questions afterwards. Thank you. David? (APPLAUSE) VLADECK: Thanks. It's sort of like old home week. I think I know at least, you know, three quarters of the audience personally. So it's really wonderful to be here today and I'm grateful for you all coming out in this torrential rain that we're having. As Jamie mentioned and as John mentioned, today marks an important step forward in the commission's work on privacy. Later today, at 11 am, assuming we get this right, we'll issue a report setting out staff's preliminary recommendations for a new privacy framework. I will give you a sneak preview of the topics covered by the report at the end of the presentation, largely to keep you captive until then. I know that if I do this at the beginning there will be a huge migration out of here. So the report will be posted on our website around 11, and at 1 today there will be press availability with the chairman and some of the key staff who authored the report. For members of the press, if you want to participate, just talk to our press office. So now we know that there's an elephant in the room.