A Place to Complain about Internet Privacy
Don’t like what a website has done with your personal information? Don’t understand its privacy policies? A new privacy complaint site is now open for business–created by an Internet freedom and privacy advocacy group in Washington, D.C. called the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT).

Complaints can be shared with your social network via sites like Twitter and Facebook, and also forwarded to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). If enough complaints surface, it’s possible that the FTC will launch an investigation into whether a website is violate existing laws.
The larger point is to create a cudgel to get Congress interested in enacting comprehensive Internet privacy legislation. CDT has already put out a pretty good guide to online privacy problems, explaining existing and often narrowly-written patchwork of court rulings and laws, most of them falling hopelessly behind rapid technological advances.
“In the past ten years, the ability of Internet companies to collect and aggregate information has increased dramatically,” says Leslie Harris, the group’s president. But while some states have taken action, Congress has not. “We see next year as the first time in a decade that we will have serious debate in Congress on whether we will have comprehensive privacy laws.”
Among other things, says Harris, “we ought to have a tool that takes you out of online tracking; with one click, you delete all tracking devices that have been put on your computer.” Users should also have the power to force Internet companies to delete personal data, such as search requests, after the passage of a reasonable period of time, she adds.
Keep Reading
Most Popular
A Roomba recorded a woman on the toilet. How did screenshots end up on Facebook?
Robot vacuum companies say your images are safe, but a sprawling global supply chain for data from our devices creates risk.
A startup says it’s begun releasing particles into the atmosphere, in an effort to tweak the climate
Make Sunsets is already attempting to earn revenue for geoengineering, a move likely to provoke widespread criticism.
10 Breakthrough Technologies 2023
These exclusive satellite images show that Saudi Arabia’s sci-fi megacity is well underway
Weirdly, any recent work on The Line doesn’t show up on Google Maps. But we got the images anyway.
Stay connected
Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review
Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.