With botnets, tracking tools, malware and spyware, the Internet still represents the wild, wild West. But Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna is doing his best to clean up the place. And — based on his remarks today at the Washington Innovation Summit — he wants your help on the job.
“We need as many Sheriffs as possible to help keep the peace and make (the Internet) a better experience for all consumers,” he said.
McKenna helped write the state’s Anti-Spyware Act — enforcing the first case in 2006. And since then, he’s become one of the leading advocates of consumer protection on the Internet, bringing more anti-spyware cases than any other Attorney General.
As McKenna noted at today’s Innovation Summit in Redmond, the plan to root out cybercrime started with modest beginnings in the state.
“When I was brand new in the office, I heard that our Consumer Protection Unit had a high-tech unit. I was very excited,” McKenna recalled today. “I said, ‘great, I want to meet with the high-tech unit, get em all in here, let’s sit down and talk about what we are going to do.’ The appointed hour arrives and I hear a knock on my door, and one person walks in and she says: ‘Hi, I am the high-tech unit.'”
From that moment, McKenna said that he knew that there was a lot of hard work to do. But he’s set out to help raise awareness on what he sees as a growing problem, utilizing social media technologies to push out information to consumers and working with industry to figure out the best solutions.
McKenna cited research today from a study in The Wall Street Journal which indicated that 50 of the most popular Web sites in the U.S. are putting “intrusive tracking technologies” on consumers’ computers.
McKenna noted that there is “a monumental divide” between best practices by industry and what’s actually best for consumers. “We have a long way to go,” he said.
Amazingly, McKenna said there’s still a lot of consumer education needed when it comes to online activities. In one of the more humorous moments of today’s talk, the Attorney General noted that they spend a good portion of their time “re-educating” consumers about age-old Internet scams.
“For example, we remind them: Do not answer the email from the guy in Nigeria. OK. He’s been around a long time. You’d be amazed that we have to remind people, but we do. Another good example is: When you get the letter that announces that you have won the Canadian sweepstakes — and you did not enter the Canadian sweepstakes — IT IS A SCAM.”
John Cook is co-founder of GeekWire, a tech news site in Seattle. Follow on Twitter @geekwirenews.
I spent a portion of the morning at the Technology Alliance’s Innovation Summit
