Posts from White House

Some Thoughts On Online Privacy

There are signs that Washington is gearing up to do something big in the area of online privacy. The FTC put out a report earlier this week and the White House called for a "privacy bill of rights" last month. Both have asked Congress to act on this issue.

I thought I'd lay out some basic thoughts and principles on the data we create, share, and curate on the open Internet.

1 – Our clickstreams, search history, likes, tweets, photos, and so on and so forth is our data and we should have the ability to control it, delete it, and limit how it is used. That seems like a basic right that should be available to everyone who uses the Internet.

2 – Those who do not want to be tracked should have the ability to opt-out of being tracked. The Do Not Track industry self regulation effort (in browsers, ad networks, etc) is long overdue and I hope we see real usable tools soon. The FTC expects these tools by year end. I hope they are right.

3 – Tracking and profiling provides real value to me and many users on the Internet. I like using Amazon and getting recommendations based on my purchase history. I like using Twitter and getting recommendations for who to follow. I like using Foursquare Explore and getting recommendations for places to go to based on my checkin history and my friends' checkin history. We should not do anything to limit the ability to offer these valuable personalization services on the web and mobile Internet.

4 – There are significant Internet revenue streams based on profiling and tracking. Much of the online advertising business is built on these approaches. And an increasing amount of commerce revenue is based on recommendations and personalization. We should be careful not to undercut the economic underpinning of the Internet in our attempts to regulate online privacy.

5 – Transparency can play a big role. Our portfolio company Duck Duck Go provides a very clear and crisp privacy policy for its search engine. Internet users who do not want their searches tracked and sold have come to Duck Duck Go in droves. We should encourage web and mobile services to lead with their privacy practices and let users vote with their feet. This is an opportunity for new web services who can use privacy as a basis for competition as Duck Duck Go does.

6 – There is a big difference between collecting data and using it within a web or mobile service and collecting data and selling it to third party services. I understand that the data Foursquare has on me will be used by Foursquare to make better recommendations and to target offers and specials to me. That makes sense and my decision to use Foursquare and continue to use it is an implicit license for them to do that. But I cannot use that same implicit license when the data on my activities is collected and sold to third parties.

7 – With the advent of open APIs, much of this data is not actually being sold, but it is moving freely around the web via the plumbing of the Internet. This is an area we should be particularly careful not to crimp. Open APIs are at the center of the permissionless innovation movemement and are responsible for many of the new services that are being built.

I do not have a specific set of recommendations for our elected officials on this issue. But I do agree that codifying best practices and policing the truly bad actors is a good idea. The Can Spam Act of 2003 is a good example of how industry self regulation codified in legislation was a net positive for everyone. That bill took a lot of work by the industry trade groups to get right and there were versions of Can Spam that would have be highly problematic for the industry. I suspect that will be the case with online privacy legislation too.

So everyone working in the Internet industry should make their voices heard in Washington on this issue. If you have a business that will be impacted by online privacy legislation, figure out how to engage in the debate/discussion. And the staffers in Washington who are working on this effort should reach out to the Internet industry (and not just Google and Facebook) to get a front lines view of the issues. If you don't know how to do that, you can contact me via the contact link at the bottom of this blog.

#Politics#Web/Tech

Startup America

On Monday , the White House announced Startup America. The CTO of US, Aneesh Chopra, blogged about it on Techcrunch.  My friend Brad Feld was there and blogged about it.

I have no involvement with Startup America, at least yet. But I am a fan of it for one simple reason – they are paying attention. Let me explain.

For years, entrepreneurs in NYC, particularly tech entrepreneurs, labored largely in silence. The city government was focused on the big employers and real estate. Tech entrepreneurship was something that happened elsewhere. It was largely ignored.

Then a year or two ago, the city woke up. Our mayor, himself one of the best tech entrepreneurs of his generation, woke up. They started paying attention to the emerging tech sector. The Mayor started coming our our events. The city took our calls. And they are now working with the tech sector to make things easier and support good ideas. I tell them privately and publicly that I don't agree with all that they are doing and wish they would do other things. But at least they are doing and listening. That is a huge step in the right direction.

Now it appears the White House is paying attention too. They've got smart experienced people like Steve Case, Carl Schramm, and Brad Feld advising them. They've got programs in place and more on the way.

Do I agree with all that they are doing? No. Just like NYC, I wish they would do other things. Just like NYC, I will blog about them.

One thing that jumps out to me is the focus on what is working (tech entrepreneurship) and the lack of focus on what is not working (health care entrepreneurship, energy enetrepreneurship, community entrepreneurship). I'll make sure they hear that criticism, from me and from others.

But this effort gives us an opening. We can get things like visa reform on the White House's agenda through new channels. We can push back on nutty ideas like regulating VC firms so that my blog posts would have to be signed off on a compliance officer before they go public. We can shine a light on areas that need help and those that are doing "just fine, thank you."

I live and work in startup america and I am glad the White House is paying attention to us now.



#VC & Technology