Bloggers: Noted the new Disclosure Policy from FTC yet?

In October 2009, the Federal Trade Commission or the FTC approved new guidelines on disclosure specifically targeting bloggers and celebrity endorsers.

The short of it:

The revised Guides also add new examples to illustrate the long standing principle that “material connections” (sometimes payments or free products) between advertisers and endorsers – connections that consumers would not expect – must be disclosed. These examples address what constitutes an endorsement when the message is conveyed by bloggers or other “word-of-mouth” marketers. The revised Guides specify that while decisions will be reached on a case-by-case basis, the post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement. Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service. Likewise, if a company refers in an advertisement to the findings of a research organization that conducted research sponsored by the company, the advertisement must disclose the connection between the advertiser and the research organization. And a paid endorsement – like any other advertisement – is deceptive if it makes false or misleading claims.

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How Google Handles Our Private Information

Yesterday in Google’s Official Blog, Google’s VP of Engineering, Douglas Merrill reiterated (or defended?) its security policy specifically in handling confidential information they gather every time we use one of their products- be it in search, gmail, Picasa and others.

He cited four areas in which Google prides itself when it comes to keeping our data secure, namely: Google’s Philosophy, Technology, Process and People. All four combined gives Google an edge from the rest. So the VP says in so many words.

This is really nothing special because most if not all companies abide by the same principle. Most are just better than others but follow the same codes of conduct nonetheless.

What’s interesting is how Google boasts of keeping what they know to themselves BUT at the same time use the very same confidential information to feed us with personalized unsolicited ads found every time we use their services.

Isn’t it odd to receive your travel itinerary in your inbox and finding sponsored links from Google with the same information as that found in your email along side the letter? That’s handling our private information, all right! They don’t share our information but their bots get to read the content of our emails so they can bombard us with ads we’re not interested in. They make money from reading our mails and knowing our internet habits! Well, our privacy isn’t so private after all over the internet… © 2008