Last week, the Federal Trade Commission released its final report on privacy. The Commission hopes to bring privacy by design, simplified choice for businesses and consumers, and greater transparency through its recommendations.

As WebProNews previously reported, the White House also released a privacy proposal recently that called for a Privacy Bill of Rights. Both reports show that the government is aware that privacy issues exist for both consumers and businesses.

The FTC report specifically focused on these 5 areas:

1.    Do Not Track
2.    Mobile
3.    Data Brokers
4.    Comprehensive Tracking
5.    Self-regulation

Jules Polonetsky, the Director and Co-Chair of the Future of Privacy Forum, spoke with us and explained that, while the FTC did ask Congress to pass privacy legislation, it placed a greater emphasis on finding industry best practices for self-regulation. According to him, if a company doesn’t want to be regulated, it should be doing all it can to remove the concerns consumers and the government have.

Since it is an election year, he said it was doubtful that any legislation would go through. However, the issue of privacy is not going away. As a result, he believes businesses should work with customers to find a balance that not only makes users feel their privacy is protected, but that also allows companies to further innovate.

What do you think of the FTC’s privacy framework? We’d love to know.