A new Internet Explorer feature will allow users to opt out of being tracked by certain websites. (iStock)The move comes amid growing demands for more privacy online, and U.S. government moves to introduce “do not track” legislation unless the internet industry does a better job of policing itself.

Data mining has grown into a $25-billion US industry as marketers scramble to better understand what makes individual consumers spend their money, and then design marketing efforts to target them.

In a presentation to the U.S. Congress last week, the Federal Trade Commission’s director of consumer protection David Vladeck pointed to a case involving Sears.

The retailer was using tracking software that collected information from shoppers about online purchases, online bank statements, email headers and subject lines, drug prescription records and other sensitive data.

In another case, a company selling software which allowed parents to spy on their children’s online activity was selling data that included children’s real time online chats to marketers and web developers.

via CBC News – Technology & Science – Microsoft explores privacy with new feature.

Failures in the company’s data security allowed hackers to gain administrative control of Twitter, the Federal Trade Commission said in a statement today announcing its complaint and settlement. One hacker sent a bogus tweet in January 2009 from the account of then-President-elect Barack Obama offering his followers a chance to win $500 in free gasoline.

San Francisco-based Twitter, which is closely held, allows users to send tweets, or messages of up to 140 characters. Privacy settings allow users to designate some tweets as private.

“When a company promises consumers that their personal information is secure, it must live up to that promise,” said David Vladeck, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, in the statement. “Likewise, a company that allows consumers to designate their information as private must use reasonable security to uphold such designations.”

The company said in a blog posting that the attacks on the site resulted in 45 accounts being accessed in January 2009 and 10 in April last year. The company said it moved quickly to address the security issues then.

via Twitter Settles U.S. Charges Over Hacker Attacks – BusinessWeek.

The FTC, which shares jurisdiction over broadband issues, says it recognizes the potential cost-savings cloud computing can provide. “However, the storage of data on remote computers may also raise privacy and security concerns for consumers,” wrote David Vladeck, who helms the FTC’s Consumer Protection Bureau.

“For example, the ability of cloud computing services to collect and centrally store increasing amounts of consumer data, combined with the ease with which such centrally stored data may be shared with others, create a risk that larger amounts of data may be used by entities not originally intended or understood by consumers,” the filing says.

The FTC is also looking at identity management systems — i.e., how people authenticate their identities when logging into websites — and how they can better protect citizens’ privacy.

via FTC set to examine cloud computing – The Hill’s Hillicon Valley.