On Friday, the Newspaper Association of America filed comments at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), saying the FTC's "proposed privacy principles to protect consumers could be a violation of the First Amendment," reported Digital Destiny.

The FTC's proposals aimed to restrict targeted advertising features offered by QuadrantONE, the consortium of 26 newspaper companies, which is jointly owned Tribune, Gannett, Hearst, and the New York Times.

QuadrantOne advertises itself as being able to provide potential advertisers with access to a targeted audience by context, behavior, and demographics. According to its website, QuadrantOne has a total number of close to 50 million unique users.

Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy writes that "The newspaper industry should be scrupulously candid about all its data collection and targeting.... Embracing meaningful privacy policies that fully disclose prior to collection, and ensuring affirmative user consent, must be incorporated into our concept of liberty and freedom in the digital democracy era."

Source: Digital Destiny