The White House on Thursday vowed to raise the level of privacy on the Web through a series of personal data protection measures it calls the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights . The initiative calls for, among other things, companies that gather information online to provide users with greater control over what information is collected and how it’s used.

The framework is also intended to ensure that companies use customer data in the same context that it was collected. For example, it’s expected that online retailers disclose consumers names and home addresses to shippers in order to fulfill customers orders. This is a consistent use of the information, much like a social network using member profile information to improve and add services. When an online retailer or social network discloses personal information about its customers or members to a third-party marketing company, then the data is in danger of being used out of context to sell consumers things in which they have expressed no interest.