WASHINGTON – The government has proposed changing its ban on tracking how consumers use government web sites by using cookies, the Washington Post has reported.
A two-week public comment period ended Monday on a proposal by the White House Office of Management and Budget to end a ban on federal Internet sites using such technologies and replace it with other privacy safeguards. The current prohibition, in place since 2000, can be waived if an agency head cites a “compelling need.”
This move follows concerns earlier this year where the government allowed 3rd parties to track consumers who watched videos on www.WhiteHouse.gov.
Critics complained that a redesigned White House Web site featured embedded Google YouTube videos – depicting events such as the president’s weekly address – that used tracking cookies. The White House and Google later reassured users that they had stopped collecting data.
Now privacy advocates are concerned about recently discovered contracts that allow and exemption for Google to track consumers watching YouTube videos on government sites.
Two prominent technology policy advocacy groups, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and Electronic Frontier Foundation, cited the terms of a Feb. 19 contract with Google, in which a unnamed federal agency explicitly carved out an exemption from the ban so that the agency could use Google�??s YouTube video player.
This could set a troubling trend.
Cindy Cohn, legal director for Electronic Frontier Foundation, called the contract “troubling.”
“It appears that these companies are forcing the government to lower the privacy protections that the government had promised the American people,” Cohn said. “The government should be requiring companies to raise the level of privacy protection if they want government contracts.”
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