While he doesn’t think the U.S. will see legislation this year, he does think we’ll have it eventually. He said that the U.S. was paying a lot of attention to Europe, especially since it is expected to change its privacy directive as well.

Polonetsky did tell us that 2012 would include even more scrutiny of companies and lots of hearings.

“I’ve never seen as much scrutiny,” he said.

For the companies that are not in favor of legislation, he recommends that they show how they are self-regulating.

Would you like to see online privacy legislation? We’d love to know your thoughts.

As Chris Boggs, the President of SEMPO, told WebProNews, the main goal of the letter was to promote a free market approach to the Internet that would allow search engines to provide the best results with limited or no regulation. The organization wrote the letter in response to its members’ needs and the continuing call for regulation of Google.

Although SEMPO has not received a response from the FTC, it hopes that its message was heard. Boggs told us that it is willing to work with government agencies such as the FTC to help them better understand how search engines operate.

Keep watching WebProNews for the latest news in this developing story.

With its slogan of “Not your grandma’s white pages,” Spokeo says it collects its information from public sources across the Web such as real estate listings, phone directories, and social networks. The site allows users to search for people based on their names, email addresses, phone numbers, email contacts, and, most recently, through usernames of friends on social networking sites.

Spokeo offers some information free of charge, but just like its competitor Intelius, it charges a monthly premium for more private information.

Not surprisingly, the site has a lot of people outraged, including privacy groups. Dr. Larry Ponemon, the Chairman and Founder of privacy research firm the Ponemon Institute, spoke with WebProNews and said there are problems with Spokeo from both a privacy perspective and from a information ethics perspective.

“We are, basically, powerless in organizations like Spokeo,” he said.

According to him, privacy is being tested with Spokeo since users do not have control over their personal information. However, he points out that it’s also scary since the information that the site uses may be inaccurate. For example, there are often multiple listings for the same person but with different addresses and other information.

Can Spokeo legally expose this information? This is the question that many people are asking, but there are a lot of mixed opinions. The Better Business Bureau has openly defended Spokeo saying that panic is unnecessary. Michael Arrington from TechCrunch has also spoken out about it and said that while it is alarming, there is nothing we can do about it.

Dr. Ponemon said that privacy cases are difficult because harm has to be established. It is a challenge to demonstrate harm on inaccurate information and also since the harmful impact might happen at a later point in time.

“First, the privacy hurdles have to be overcome before I think the legal challenges will end against Spokeo and other companies,” he said.

Spokeo spokesperson Katie Johnson released this statement to us in response to the recent criticism it has been receiving: “As part of our commitment to privacy, Spokeo offers an opt-out feature that is faster and easier to complete than most other people search sites. All that is required of users is an email verification process, not submitting hard copies of driver’s licenses, Social Security numbers, or other forms of identity via fax or mail.”

Although the investigation is still pending, the FTC is looking into Spokeo based on claims that it is allegedly violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Do you think that Spokeo is abusing privacy rights?

As he explains, marketers need to get back to the basics. This often involves disconnecting Facebook and Twitter and backing away from the computer. When marketers pull away, they have the opportunity to think about what they want to accomplish and create a plan for achieving it.

“The blogosphere and social media has become a bit of an echo chamber… everybody now becomes a program in the same way, doing the same thing,” said Murphy.

He goes on to say that offline is an important part of getting back to the basics. It’s one thing to have an online chat with someone, but it’s another thing to shake their hand and interact with them personally. Industry events are a great way for people to build these offline relationships.

Murphy also catches us up on the FTC guidelines that went into effect last December. When we spoke to him last year, the guidelines were raising quite a stir throughout the industry. Now, however, most of the industry is accepting them as a standardized rulebook.

The guidelines, essentially, require marketers and advertisers to be transparent and disclose their relationships. Murphy believes thy have been good for the industry.

The real issue is the need for more transparency and disclosure of advertisers and endorsers.  The Commission believes that the general public is not savvy enough to understand that people could be getting paid to blog and tweet, just as they are in mediums such as television and radio.

Although the guides will impact bloggers, the FTC has said it does not intend to go after the small mom and pop businesses. According to Mink, the FTC is more concerned with corporate advertisers.

The government is also making efforts to protect consumers from identity theft and credit card fraud. Surprisingly, Mink says many companies do not even have privacy policies. In other words, consumers may not even know if a company is collecting information and what information it is.

As a result, the government is reportedly taking stricter measures in this area. In the meantime, states are stepping in. Mink tells WebProNews that 40 states have security breach notification statutes. These statutes say that if data is collected and breached, the company has to let its users know.

However, some states are taking a more aggressive approach. Connecticut passed a law that said companies have to have privacy policies when doing business in the state. It also requires that companies tell consumers what type of information they are collecting and how they are doing it. Massachusetts and Nevada both require companies to encrypt information.

Mink expects new recommendations from the government in this area soon.

Are you staying current on these important legal matters to ensure protection for your users?

Last year, the FTC told the industry that it need to self-regulate. The Commission also said that it would step in with regulation if the industry did not do it on its own.

Many bloggers and others in the industry expressed concern about the potential government intervention since they feared the enforcement of the regulation would be difficult and not done right. Because content has exploded online and has been largely supported by online advertising, Mitchell said many have raised alarm out of fear of innovation being halted.

At this point, the government has been conducting roundtable discussions with publishers and advertisers to try to reach a solution.  In addition, the industry is scrambling to speed up self-regulation.

As for the future implications on online advertising, Mitchell actually sees a positive effect. He believes there will be an increase in targeted ads and the right balance between user transparency and control.

The Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising hope to regulate how advertisers utilize endorsements by consumers, experts, organizations, celebrities, and bloggers. The FTC is calling for these parties to openly disclose their relationships with the company or brand they are endorsing, which is causing quite a rise from the blogosphere.

Piersall raised many points on both sides of the debate. On one side, many people feel like they have to “justify” what they are talking about. For example, someone may provide a complimentary statement toward a brand without realizing that it could be perceived as an endorsement. Piersall said she has become very conscious of how she injects brands into her work.

On the flip side, if someone is willing to associate his personal brand with another brand, then he must also be willing to face the consequences that could be affiliated with it. According to Piersall, while brands should not expect bloggers to spread their message for free, bloggers should also be open and disclose their relationship.

Although the gray areas remain, Piersall hopes that people take both the ethics and consequences into consideration moving forward. To read the complete text of the guidelines, the official documentation can be found here.

WebProNews talked with Ted Murphy, the Founder and CEO of IZEA, which is the parent company of PayPerPost.  He explained how his company helps advertisers connect with bloggers and others who create content in social media to promote their products and services. Sporting a shirt that said I Heart FTC, Murphy says he is very much in favor of the guidelines. He believes the revisions were necessary to create a safe marketplace for this form of word-of-mouth marketing.

There are however, many gray areas. One of those areas specifically deals with the form of disclosure. From an advertiser’s perspective, Murphy thinks that a systematic approach is the best solution for structural purposes. If disclosure is not systematic, it could be harder to manage.

One of the biggest questions with the revisions is the issue of enforcement. No one really knows to what extent the FTC will police the Web. As a precaution, IZEA is taking a proactive approach with disclosure to ensure that they are prepared if any issues arise.

Some people view the guidelines as “big government” stepping in. In response, Murphy argues that while the FTC’s primary objective is to protect consumers, it is actually in everyone’s best interest to protect consumers since they are the readers, viewers, and even buyers.

The guides are set to go into effect December 1, 2009. If you would like to read the guides in full, the official documentation can be found here.

As a result, marketers, advertisers, and bloggers alike are all raising concern. Is it necessary for the government to intervene? A problem does exist since consumers are directly affected by paid and sponsored posts, but is government regulation the answer?

Brian Solis, the Principal of FutureWorks, conducted a study on Facebook to explore possible solutions. He found that while most everyone agreed that disclosure was the key to solving the issue, they could not agree on a standard format.

Will disclosure be included in the FTC’s new guidelines? Could these issues be resolved without government intervention?

Since the FTC is expected to release their guidelines at any time, we might not have to speculate for much longer.

Update 10/6/09: The FTC has released their guidelines as reported by Chris Crum here and here. Stay tuned for a new video on the topic coming soon.

Just for a quick recap, Impulse Media Group is an adult website that has several affiliates. The FTC sued Impulse Media Group for spam that was sent via its affiliates. The case went to jury and found that Impulse Media should not be held liable.

Many people disagreed with the outcome including Affiliate Summit Co-founder Shawn Collins who referred to it as a “travesty.” From a legal perspective however, attorney Anne Mitchell blatantly says, “the FTC couldn’t prove their case.” Clarke Walton also agrees with the verdict on the grounds that Impulse Media had well-designed policy agreements with its affiliates.

Affiliate agreements are very important because they essentially set the bar for how the relationship is governed. Clarke points out that the relationship between Impulse Media Group and its affiliates was that of an independent contractor and not of an agency-principal.

Sarah Bird also throws out a word of advice for affiliate marketers. She says monitoring your affiliates in addition to the terms of use set up, is a good rule of thumb to go by to prevent unwanted activity.