Gore Staffer Warns DMers: Better Self-Regulate
SELF-REGULATION was the magic word during the Direct Marketing Association’s Government Affairs Conference last month at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, DC.
David Beier, the chief domestic policy advisor to Vice President Al Gore, said that “after some considerable prodding…many companies have stepped up a self-regulatory regime” regarding the privacy issue. But, he added, the companies that don’t play by the rules “may come back to haunt you.”
Beier predicted it would be difficult for the government to sit back while some companies concern themselves with privacy and others don’t. “Eventually I think the pressure will be substantial enough to legislate some sort of safety net to protect privacy online,” he said.
With the departure of Ira Magaziner, Beier is the administration’s point person on e-commerce.
Answering a question on Gore’s announcement that leaders of the online industry have agreed to create a standardized “Parents’ Protection Page,” Beier said, “Even for people who aren’t Internet savvy, it’s pretty easy to help guide your children.”
Starting in July, major sites will provide a place reached through one click that will have safety tips for parents and kids, a resource section for filtering and blocking information, a help line and suggestions for good content for children.
Beier made his comments during a week in which President Clinton proposed a bill requiring financial institutions to inform consumers that information on them is being shared or sold, and giving them the right to opt out. Clinton is particularly concerned about sharing of financial and medical information by affiliate companies.
The Senate also addressed the privacy issue, approving a measure attacking the problem of “pretext calling.” That provision, part of a bill allowing banks, insurers and other financial institutions to enter one another’s businesses, would make it a federal crime to misrepresent oneself to collect personal financial information. At deadline, the House had not yet passed a version of the bill sponsored by Sen. Phil Gramm (R-TX).
Another conference speaker, Rep. W.J. “Billy” Tauzin (R-LA), predicted the subcommittee he chairs will eventually hold hearings on how well the industry is policing itself. Tauzin heads the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade and Consumer Protection, which addresses many issues of concern to direct marketers.
In his talk, Federal Trade Commissioner Orson G. Swindle said Congress should pass a moratorium on online privacy regulation similar to the three-year ban on discriminatory Internet taxes in the Internet Tax Freedom Act of 1998.
