White House Announces “Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights”

The White House unveiled a "Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights” on February 23, 2012 as part of a comprehensive blueprint to improve consumers’ online privacy protections and ensure that the Internet remains an engine for innovation and economic growth. The plan will guide efforts to give users more control over how their personal information is used on the Internet and to help businesses maintain consumer trust and grow in the rapidly changing digital environment.

The Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights provides a baseline of clear protections for consumers and greater certainty for businesses. The rights are:

• Individual Control: Consumers have a right to exercise control over what personal data organizations collect from them and how they use it.
• Transparency: Consumers have a right to easily understandable information about privacy and security practices.
• Respect for Context: Consumers have a right to expect that organizations will collect, use, and disclose personal data in ways that are consistent with the context in which consumers provide the data.
• Security: Consumers have a right to secure and responsible handling of personal data.
• Access and Accuracy: Consumers have a right to access and correct personal data in usable formats, in a manner that is appropriate to the sensitivity of the data and the risk of adverse consequences to consumers if the data are inaccurate.
• Focused Collection: Consumers have a right to reasonable limits on the personal data that companies collect and retain.
• Accountability: Consumers have a right to have personal data handled by companies with appropriate measures in place to assure they adhere to the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights.

In the coming weeks, the Commerce Department will convene stakeholders - including companies, privacy and consumer advocates, technical experts, international partners, and academics - to establish specific practices or codes of conduct that implement the general principles in the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights.

The Administration plans to work with Congress to develop legislation based on the Bill of Rights to extend baseline privacy protections to commercial sectors that existing federal privacy laws do not cover.