Center for Democracy & Technology | Keeping the Internet Open, Innovative and Free

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Welcome to Take Back Your Privacy, the Center for Democracy & Technology’s campaign to put control over our personal data back where it belongs: in our own hands.

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Email Your Rep

The first step to Take Back Your Privacy is to let your representatives know that you want it! Are you frustrated that it's becoming difficult to track when, where, how, and to whom your personal information is disclosed? If so, contact your representative here.

Privacy Tools

Use CDT’s brand new Privacy Complaint Tool to share your complaints about companies that are violating your privacy. Send your complaint to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) or just share it with your friends.

Privacy Postings

Congress Surveys Consumer Privacy Landscape

by: Erica Newland

Date: 07/23/2010 - 5:06pm

Baseline Privacy Legislation

Privacy is a building block of trust in this digital age; and yes, there's an "app" for that. It's called a federal baseline consumer privacy bill, it just hasn't passed… yet. CDT President Leslie Harris testified yesterday at a hearing of the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection examining two current privacy bills; the Best Practices Act (H.R. 5777) from Subcommittee Chairman Bobby Rush and a draft bill from from Congressmen Rick Boucher. In her written testimony Harris said:

Continued »

New Bill Adds Momentum to Push for Consumer Privacy Law

by: Erica Newland

Date: 07/20/2010 - 10:44am

Baseline Privacy Legislation

Congressman Bobby Rush, (D-Ill.), Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection, has released his draft of a bold consumer privacy bill, called the Best Practices Act. In May, Rep. Boucher, Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet, reinvigorated the conversation around baseline consumer privacy legislation when he circulated a draft consumer privacy bill for comment. Chairman Rush’s bill builds on the groundwork of Boucher's draft but goes further to include a full set of fair information practices. Both the Rush bill and the Boucher draft address basic concerns of consumers. A Zogby poll released last month found that 88% of Americans believe that companies "tracking where an Internet user goes on the Internet without the user's permission is an unfair business practice," and a September 2009 study...

Continued »

'Trusted Identities' Plan Needs More Public Feedback

by: Heather West

Date: 07/16/2010 - 2:02pm

Federal Digital Identity

Identity Management

We've been working to put together comments on the government's National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC) plan, as I mentioned earlier this month. The initial NSTIC plan has been criticized as vague and short on details - and the comment period is ending on Monday. Although work on NSTIC started on June 25th, CDT and others from industry and public interest groups have been working with those developing the strategy for some time. The public draft differs in a few significant ways from the previous, nonpublic drafts, so CDT and others are working hard and pushing the deadline to complete our analysis. Extending the deadline is one of the more popular suggestions now on Ideascale site set up by the government to take public comments. Last I checked, this suggestion had three times more votes than other ideas (but for some reason isn’t showing up on the front page).

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Gamers Triumph: Blizzard Rolls Back Real Name Mandate

by: Sean Brooks

Date: 07/09/2010 - 2:13pm

More Issues in Consumer Privacy

Today Blizzard rolled back its plans to strip users of their privacy when posting comments on its popular online forums for its World of Warcraft and Starcraft II games. As Blizzard states in their post: ...when we launch the new StarCraft II forums that include these new features, you will be posting by your StarCraft II Battle.net character name + character code, not your real name. The upgraded World of Warcraft forums with these new features will launch close to the release of Cataclysm, and also will not require your real name. Once again we seen how a motivated group of users can take back their privacy by using the power of the Internet to share a common concern, amplify the message and demand corporate action. Likewise, we've seen a company listen to user criticism by acting quickly and responsibly in a way that builds trust and restores privacy to that community. Just two days ago, we had called for this exact action, citing the importance of allowing...

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Take Back Your Privacy

Take Back Your Privacy is about you and your rights. For Congress and industry to understand that Internet user privacy matters, we as consumers need to send a clear message – we want our privacy.

When you join the privacy campaign, we’ll keep you informed about the major developments in Internet user privacy – whether they occur in Capitol Hill meeting rooms or Silicon Valley boardrooms. We’ll also tip you off to opportunities to make your voice heard, both by lawmakers and by the companies that collect our personal information.

We won’t share your information with anyone (our full privacy policy is here) and won’t overload you with e-mail.

Privacy Guides

Facebook Privacy Guide

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Tweet the Privacy Facts

3rd-party apps on your phone/social networking profile may be tracking you online or accessing your friends’ profiles #tbyp

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90% of young adults reject advertisements that are tailored based on information gathered about their offline behavior. #tbyp

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The United States lacks a comprehensive federal law protecting consumer privacy. #tbyp

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