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If you wonder if you are being followed online and if anything can be done about it, take a look at the just-out Federal Trade Commission report on <a href="http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2010/12/privacyreport.shtm">online privacy</a>.</p>
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A frightening amount of information is available about us online and the Federal Trade Commission has endorsed the notion of a "privacy by design" build-in for web browsers. The report suggests a new framework for online privacy is vital.</p>
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<b>Jeff Chester, executive director, Center for Digital Democracy:</b></p>
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Would appropriate a catch phrase to describe online marketing: "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" - because what websites and data collectors tell you is different from what they tell advertisers.</p>
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<strong>Bob Klein founded the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the biggest state-run research project in US history. What legacy will he leave behind?</strong><br />
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WASHINGTON--The Federal Trade Commission is ready to release a key report on online privacy and the concept of a "do not track" approach to Web marketing, but it will probably have to get Congress involved to see any meaningful change, a FTC commissioner said today.</p>
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WASHINGTON - Fresh off the news that Europe is formally investigating Google, a Silicon Valley antitrust expert today laid out the hypothetical case against Google that might play out should U.S. regulators decide to get involved.<br />
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SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- U.S. regulators will continue to monitor Google Inc.'s business practices and may yet follow the European Union's lead by launching an antitrust investigation, a Federal Trade Commission official said Wednesday</p>
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"You may well see something soon from the U.S. agencies, but I can't promise anything," said Melanie Sabo, Assistant Director for Anticompetitive Practices at the FTC's Bureau of Competition.</p>
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WASHINGTON -- Wading into the increasingly contentious debate over online privacy, the Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday said Internet users ought to be able to easily block others from monitoring their online activity -- a move that could curtail the ability of advertisers such as Google to sell lucrative targeted ads to users.<br />
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The Commerce Department believes industry practices to protect Internet users' privacy, such as the creation of a Do Not Track online tool, should be voluntary but enforceable, a department official said on Wednesday.</p>
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The European Union is investigating claims from smaller search engines that Google has violated fair competition rules by boosting its results. Google denies the claims.<br />
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The European Union’s inquiry into Google’s search practices has evolved into a full-blown investigation as the agency’s antitrust watchdog pledged to take a hard look at the search engine.<br />
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Will U.S. antitrust regulators follow Europe's lead and do what the European Commission did today -- launch an in-depth probe to determine if Google is using illegal monopolistic business practices?<br />
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That question is reverberating around the global community of antitrust experts who were around the last time the U.S. and Europe engaged a giant tech monopoly at the peak of its powers in a landmark antitrust case.<br />
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