Competition and Consumer Protection in a Web 3.0 World

Corporate Vice President & Deputy General Counsel, Global Corporate & Regulatory Affairs
In the emerging Web 3.0 world, privacy will likely become a principal feature on which consumers base decisions about which products and services to use.
Here’s why: Web 3.0 technologies will be able to understand your likes, dislikes and preferences based on your online activity, and proactively offer you information and services tailored to your interests.
For example, as the weekend approaches and on the basis of your prior activity, an application may suggest a movie based on reviews you read, and, if you want, purchase tickets for you and take steps to identify restaurants that you (or the friends in your social network) have “liked” and book a reservation, calculating the time it likely will take for you to enjoy your meal using previous data it may have about whether you eat early or late.

As the companies that provide these kinds of services gain access to more data and have the ability to know even more about us, we anticipate that the traditional division between competition law and consumer protection law (which includes privacy) may begin to erode.
As privacy becomes a principal feature on which consumers base decisions regarding search, browsing, social medial, mobile and other services, we expect to see the IT ecosystem provide a variety of approaches to privacy. Indeed, this already happens today.
In some cases, privacy might be thought of as a proxy or form of “price” (especially when the underlying product might be free to use). In other words, consumers might decide to “pay” for certain “free” or subsidized products, services or features with their privacy, which in turn can translate into dollar revenue for the product or service provider.
Earlier today, I participated in a panel discussion at the American Bar Association’s 59th Annual Antitrust Spring Meeting in Washington, D.C. about the intersection of competition and consumer privacy law in the developing Web 3.0 environment.
Competition—and competition law—may have a significant impact on the “privacy prices” consumers have to pay. However, if a company’s privacy practices are not clear, consumers will not understand the “price” they are paying. This is where consumer protection might play an intersecting role, by enhancing transparency and empowering consumers to make informed privacy choices.
In the Web 2.0 world we live in today, privacy is already an important competitive differentiator. Consumers want to know that companies delivering interactive content, social networking and tailored advertising are disclosing truthfully how they plan to use their data and are behaving responsibly in managing it. I believe that Microsoft’s longstanding commitment to privacy will serve us well as we compete for business—and vie for consumers’ trust—in a Web 3.0 world.
For more than a decade—as part of our commitment to creating a Trustworthy Computing ecosystem—we have developed and employed a variety of principles, policies and procedures to help ensure that we’re thinking about privacy at all stages of the product lifecycle – a Privacy-by-Design approach.
We employ more than 40 people who focus on privacy full-time and another 400 across the company and around the world that support privacy as part of their jobs. We share best practices with the technology industry and the privacy community, including a public version of our Privacy Guidelines for Developing Software Products and Services.
Earlier this month, we launched Internet Explorer 9, the first major Web browser to employ a do-not-track tool. This tool, called “Tracking Protection,” offers consumers a new way to identify and block many forms of undesired tracking via “Tracking Protection Lists” that enable consumers to control what third-party site content can track them when online. We began developing this tool well in advance of the Federal Trade Commission’s discussion of a do-not-track mechanism in its Proposed Privacy Framework of December 2010, and so we also support the FTC’s approach.
We support a multi-pronged approach to privacy that includes legislation, industry self-regulation, technology tools and consumer education. We look forward to continuing to provide leadership and innovation in privacy protections as we move to a Web 3.0 world.

Angry? Say a Little Prayer

Furious about an unkind comment? Angry about a social snub? Say a prayer, even if you're not religious.

New research from American and Dutch scientists shows praying can help ease anger, lower aggression and lessen the impact of provocation.

"People often turn to prayer when they're feeling negative emotions, including anger," said Brad Bushman, a professor of communications and psychology at Ohio State University and a co-author of the study.

"We found that prayer really can help people cope with their anger, probably by helping them change how they view the events that angered them and helping them take it less personally."

In research published online in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Bushman and his colleagues found that prayer helped to control anger regardless of the person's religious affiliation, or if they attended church or prayed regularly.

In the first study they asked 53 U.S. college students to complete a questionnaire that measured levels of emotions such as anger, depression, tension, fatigue and vigor and then put them in a situation that could elicit an angry response.

Then the students were told to read a newspaper report about a cancer patient and randomly assigned to pray for her or to just think about her. Students who prayed for the patient had lower self-reported anger levels.

In other studies Bushman, Ryan Bremner of the University of Michigan, and Sander Koole, of UV University in Amsterdam in the Netherlands, found similar results about the power of prayer in dealing with anger, aggression and provocation.

"The effects we found in these experiments were quite large, which suggests that prayer may really be an effective way to calm anger and aggression," Bushman said.

But he stressed that the benefits were related to benevolent prayer.

"When people are confronting their own anger, they may want to consider the old advice of praying for one's enemies," Bremner said. "It may not benefit their enemies, but it may help them deal with the negative emotions."