Obama and Privacy
Assorted privacy experts are forming a group “to help shape standards around how companies collect, store and use consumer data for business and advertising,” the Washington Post reports.
The so-called Future of Privacy Forum will be headed by Jules Polentsky, formerly in charge of AOL’s privacy policy, and lawyer Chris Wolf, the Post reports. The sponsor is AT&T.
Just what we need—another group to add its voice to the cacophony. Who appointed these guys? Hasn’t Polentsky’s old firm, AOL, created more than its share of turmoil in this area?
And there’s one more troublesome thing—that President-Elect Barack Obama has “cited privacy as one of the technology issues his administration would address, setting the stage for a debate over standards for online publishers and advertisers,” the Post writes.
Oh, really? Does that mean a rewriting of Can-Spam, or draconian new rules on Web tracking and personalization?
Let’s hope not—marketers are having a hard enough time as it is. But the group does seem to be working on that track.
For example, it may “encourage companies to allow consumers to opt into tracking practices, rather than the typical method of requiring customers to opt out,” the Post reports.
That’s a good best practice. But what’s next—a law requiring that?
Worse, will this idea spread over into snail mail, resulting in a federal Do-Not-Mail bill? Maybe we can leapfrog the generic opt-out proposals and mandate an opt-in.
Last month, I had a brief chat with John A. Greco, CEO of the Direct Marketing Association, during the DMA’s fall event. I asked him how he rated the candidates on privacy and other issues.
Greco was discreet, as befits the head of an association with both Republican and Democratic members. He explained that privacy is a bipartisan issue, and that only nuances separate the parties.
But he did suggest that proposals would move more quickly with a Democratic Congress and an Obama White House.
Well, we’re here. And while the president-elect has more pressing concerns, Congress always seems to have time for mischief. Let’s hope the Future of Privacy Forum helps keep things on a sane track.
