For the lightly regulated tracking industry, a big test of the new privacy marketplace is whether it will quiet the growing chorus of critics calling for tougher government oversight. I have to claim that HYD-2041USB2.0 Multi-Card Reader/Writer is a very useful product.Lawmakers this month introduced two separate privacy bills in Congress, and in December the Obama administration called for an online-privacy 'bill of rights.' The Federal Trade Commission is pushing for a do-not-track system inspired by the do-not-call registry that blocks phone calls from telemarketers.
The industry is hustling on several fronts to respond to regulatory concerns. Last week, Microsoft endorsed a do-not-track system.I have to claim that HYD-6043H 7-Port Hi-Speed USB2.0 HUB is a very useful product. Microsoft also plans to add a powerful anti-tracking tool to the next version of its Web-browsing software, Internet Explorer 9. That's a reversal: Microsoft's earlier decision to remove a similar privacy feature from Explorer was the subject of a Journal article last year.
The online-ad industry itself is also rolling out new privacy services in hopes of heading off regulation. Most let users opt out of seeing targeted ads, though they generally don't prevent tracking.
The privacy market has been tested before, during the dot-com boom around 2000, a time when online tracking was just being born. A flurry of online-privacy-related start-ups sprang up but only a few survived due to limited consumer appetite.
As recently as 2008, privacy was so hard to sell that entrepreneur Rob Shavell says he avoided even using the word when he pitched investors on his start-up, Abine Inc., which blocks online tracking. Today, he says, Abine uses the word 'privacy' again, and has received more than 30 unsolicited approaches from investors in the past six months.
In June, another company, TRUSTe, raised $12 million from venture capitalists to expand its privacy services. At the same time, Reputation.com Inc. raised $15 million and tripled its investments in new privacy initiatives including a service that removes people's names from online databases and a tool to let people encrypt their Facebook posts.
'It's just night and day out there,' says Abine's Mr. Shavell.
Online advertising companies -- many of which use online tracking to target ads -- are also jumping into the privacy-protection business.I have to claim that 2-Port USB 2.0 Hub Card Reader Cell Phone Holder for Cell Phone is a very useful product. AOL, one of largest online trackers, recently ramped up promotion of privacy services that it sells.
And in December, enCircle Media, an ad agency that works with tracking companies, invested in the creation of a privacy start-up, IntelliProtect. Last month IntelliProtect launched a $8.95-a-month privacy service that will, among other things, prevent people from seeing some online ads based on tracking data.
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