Consumer Complaints about Privacy on the Rise: Seattle

Over the last several years, the Washington Attorney General’s office has seen a spike in the number of consumer complaints relating to privacy.

The state, which documents between 30,000 and 40,000 complaints annually about a wide range of issues, received 300 complaints last year specific to privacy concerns, Paula Selis, Washington’s assistant attorney general told a group during a session Wednesday at the Direct Marketing Association’s net.marketing Conference & Exhibition in Seattle.

She said the spike appeared to coincide with a widely reported case of a large bank that breached consumer privacy by sharing its customer data with telemarketing firms.

“Non of us want people we don’t know poking into our business,” Selis said.

She added that there are a number of other more palpable reasons for consumer concern, specifically when it comes to the Internet, such as the unauthorized use of credit cards, identity theft, stalking and the use of cookies.

Last year, the Association of Attorneys General labeled privacy its issue of highest priority, according to Emily Hackett, state policy director of the Internet Alliance, who moderated the session.

Hackett said that while there are 314 privacy bills pending in 42 states, 36 Internet privacy bills in 11 states and 12 unsolicited commercial e-mail bills in 8 states, no state has yet passed a broad-based Internet privacy bill.

Detailing the difficulties in passing such legislation, Selis said that Washington had tried to pass a bill last year that applied to online and offline information sharing that created two levels of information: sensitive data, such as Social Security numbers and credit card and bank account information, and non-sensitive data, such as demographic and lifestyle information. Sensitive data would require opt-in permission while an opt-out model would apply to non-sensitive information.

A wild number of lobbyists with wide objectives appeared for the hearings and agreement was never reached. “I have never seen that many lobbyists in Olympia,” she said. “Everybody has their own perspective and different ideas about what’s right. It’s hard to get consensus.”

She said the goal during this legislative session is to work at the Federal level to come to some appropriate consensus.

A number of other panelists were scheduled to speak including Hardy Myers from the Oregon AG’s office and Barbara Winker, also from the Washington AG’s office, however the session abruptly ended when an earthquake with a magnitude of 7 hit Seattle at 10:54 a.m. sending attendees running for cover or out to the streets. The conference was then cancelled.

Hackett also offered the following statistics:

*There are 12 bills containing opt-in or opt-out requirements pending in six states. The five states that have an opt-in bill are Arizona, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York and Tennessee.

*Five bills in three states, Arizona, Maine and New Hampshire, propose the creation of an agency or commission to study privacy.