American companies lead the way in providing the newest technologies to the American consumer population. Recently smartphone applications such as Youtube and Flickr have been accused of spying on user’s personal information (Whittaker). Including personal information such as contact lists, text messages and GPS locations. Other popular companies like Facebook, Google and Apple have been tracking users on the internet without permission (Acohido). Twitter, another popular social media application, was reported saving the users information for 18 months after they sign up for “find friends” on their Twitter account. Path, an iOS and Android application, was also reported for accessing user contact information without permission. There is no clear set of ground rules that apply to this commercial arena. This makes it difficult for consumers to assess whether a company’s privacy policy is going to be intrusive into the one’s private life. These companies take the information that they acquire from users history, contacts, text messages, search engines and social networks, and they build a detailed profile filled with the user’s behavior. Do we want to have a hidden profile with all our personal information stashed away? No this is just how marketing is becoming more intrusive, selling our information to third parties for them to analyze. That’s why we see advertisements that are personally marketed towards us (Delo).

The Obama administration has looked into this problem and released a report to Congress for the “Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights.” The White House plans to send this bill to Congress for passage, this would provide for individual control over our personal data. There is no set date for this to go into effect that is why we as consumers NEED to act to make laws so we can ensure our freedom as Americans. The bill would also make the application companies put their privacy policies in an easy to read language so any consumer can understand it with no hidden or convoluted message. Many users that download the smartphone applications are left in the dark about what the privacy policy is for each individual application. Something is starting to be done about the matter but Congress needs to protect people’s privacy. By signing this petition, we demand that the “Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights” be passed immediately so Americans can feel free again. Our privacy matters!

Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/privacy-final.pdf

Acohido, Byron. "White House pushes for online privacy rights." USA Today. 23 February 2012: n. page.

Web. 20 Mar. 2012. .

Delo, Cotton. "Facebook App Shares 'Friend' Data With Marketers." USA Today. 20 March 2012: n. page.

Web. 20 Mar. 2012. .

Whittaker, Zack. "Facebook, Flickr, others accused of reading text messages." ZD Net. 26

February 2012: n. page. Web. 20 Mar. 2012. .