Proposed act questions online privacy policy

Without any opposition, the California State Assembly passed Torrance’s Assemblyman Al Murtsuchi’s proposal titled the Online Tracking Transparency Act the act that requires commercial websites and online services to inform users how the sites and services honor the “do not track” signal, which is sent from users requesting to not have their online activity tracked. The act now awaits Gov. Jerry Brown’s approval.

Certain browsers, such as Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari and Google Chrome, allow users to emit a “do not track signal”, which allows the user to surf the web privately. But, websites and online services are not required to honor it.

 “I’ve had a couple of friends have their accounts online be hacked into, and they seemed pretty stressed out about it. It’s really scary to think that someone might be tracking what I do online,” freshman Morgan Rivera said.

The proposal, however, has some limitations. For example, it cannot prevent websites from tracking online activity. Furthermore, many corporations are against having to change their online privacy policy depending on the state’s policies.

Many companies track a user’s online activity to gather information for advertising behavior targeting, which is a type of advertisement that analyzes online behavior of people, such as what they search, to figure out what ads would be placed at which website, reports the Huffington Post.

Even with the setbacks, many hope that the implementation of this proposal sets a standard for the nation and its privacy laws.

Many hope this act can lead to fewer crimes or discomforts online. Pew Research Center reported that many people have been harassed online due to their visibility online. Twenty-one percent of the 792 Internet users have had their mails or social media accounts taken over, 12 percent have been stalked or harassed online and 11 percent have had important personal information stolen.

“It’s definitely a start,” freshman Camryn Bush said. “It is not a very concrete or strong yet, but I am sure this will raise more awareness towards Internet privacy and can spark the nation to begin regulating privacy.”

Although the new proposal will not be able to prevent online tracking, many believe it is a small step in the right direction to help keep privacy.