From...

by Keith Perine

(IDG) -- Accusing the Federal Trade Commission of stonewalling, an advocacy group for online privacy has filed a federal lawsuit to force the agency to turn over documents regarding its investigation of privacy complaints.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center says it filed a request for the records in June under the Freedom of Information Act, but that the FTC has failed to fulfill that request.

According to the lawsuit, the FTC has failed to provide EPIC with so much as a written status report on the request. FOIA guidelines require that requests receive responses within 20 business days. The lawsuit alleges that the FTC has told EPIC that it has no tracking system for the complaints it receives, and that the commission can't estimate how long it will take to produce the records.

EPIC says it is asking for the documents in order to see whether current protections regarding online privacy are sufficient. Last July FTC Chairman Robert Pitofsky told a congressional subcommittee that self-regulation by the online industry was "the least intrusive and most efficient means" to ensure privacy protection on the Internet.

"An important part of this debate that has been missing is to look at the effectiveness of what the FTC and the industry says is an adequate system," says EPIC general counsel David Sobel.

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EPIC has been pushing the government to enact tougher online privacy protections. The group has been lobbying for legislation that would establish privacy standards and give consumers the right to see how their personal data is being used by Internet businesses.

FTC spokesperson Victoria Streitfeld said the commission has been busy processing EPIC's request since June, but she wouldn't say when the processing would be finished. Streitfeld said that, contrary to EPIC's claim, the commission does have a system for tracking online privacy complaints.

The FTC has 30 days to respond to the lawsuit, either by releasing the documents or asking for more time. Streitfeld says the commission won't release any information related to current or potential commission investigations. She said that the commission is redacting all personal information from the rest of the complaints before handing them over to EPIC.

Sobel said that EPIC will push the FTC to summarize any actions it has taken and to explain why it hasn't pursued some complaints.