Yet, consumers feel that the online businesses have gone too far in their data profiling practices (Up for sale: Privacy on the Net).

More and more, these companies use cookies and Web bugs to secretly track down information about customers. Internet businesses track Web users across multiple Web sites to build detailed individual profiles about personally sensitive information such as spending habits, income, illnesses and occupation. Often this data is sold to retailers or to private data collection agencies without the customer's knowledge or permission.

Consumer privacy advocates and online businesses are at odds as to how to best resolve privacy concerns (Up for sale: Privacy on the Net). Online businesses support continued self-regulation and providing consumers with the option to "opt out" of data collection processes. Online businesses also believe that new services such as zeroknowledge.com help consumers prevent tracking of their personal information. Consumer privacy advocates, on the other hand, demand legislation that would require...

These privacy advocates believe that many consumers don't have a good understanding on how their information is being collected and used. Therefore, they don't have the adequate background to proactively restrict a Web site's tracking of their behavior and personal data
In conclusion, online businesses have appropriate motivations for data collection, but consumer privacy gets lost in the process. Self-regulation doesn't work; there's no guarantee that a company will follow the policies it publishes.

Opt out" is a weak form of privacy protection when there are so many consumers who don't even realizes that they need protection. For these reasons, "opt in" legislation does seem to be an appropriate measure to protect consumer privacy.

Bibliography

McDonald's Internet privacy policy. http://www.mcdonalds.com/privacy.html

Up for sale: Privacy on the Net (2001, March 25). CNET News.com. http://news.cnet.com/2009-1023-254701.html