Telemarketing may be in for some rough times during the next five years, which is how long the first rush of names on the federal do-not-call registry will remain on the file. But the industry will rebound and slowly recover as marketers introduce more responsibility into the sales process, according to Jennifer Barrett, company privacy leader at Acxiom Corp.

For one thing, the rush of consumers to join the do-not-call list will subside, Barrett said. And marketers will give their customers more granular opt-out options, allowing them to self-select which offers are relevant. Finally, firms will become better at pointing out the benefits to consumers of allowing telemarketing offers.

Barrett predicted that of the 60 million the industry anticipates as signing up to the list by Oct. 1, only half will re-enlist in 2008. But this does not mean that telemarketers should immediately start calling them again. Telemarketing is all about relevance and respect, Barrett said. Responsible marketers will collect intelligence about household sensitivities to telemarketing and use it, test innovative scripts, and honor requests to opt out of individual company databases.

As for other channels, Barrett said that spam will be minimized through a combination of legislation, technology filters and an industry code of conduct, and direct mail will continue to be the least regulated medium.

She also predicts that information from third parties will be somewhat harder to get and more expensive, that there will be a small decline in the number of lists on the market after broad-based privacy legislation passes and that access to private sector information by the government will be regulated.

These shifts will occur because consumers “don’t act rationally” when it comes to privacy concerns, Barrett said. Furthermore, neither consumers nor politicians understand the values inherent in the information-based economy. The value customer information brings to consumers has not been conveyed – but information misuse presents a hot-button issues for both politicians and the press.

Not that marketers haven’t been complicit: Consumers have become increasingly irritated by high-pressure tactics, and have a growing skepticism about business ethics in general. Response rates have been hurt by these overly aggressive marketing tactics, according to Barrett.

Additionally, while consumers are currently willing to surrender personal information in return for the promise of greater security, privacy advocates are increasingly raising the specter of a loss of civil liberties as the government works with information providers to fight terrorism.

These advocates are successful at turning public opinion: In surveys, the percentage of consumers identified as “Privacy Fundamentalists” (those who want the strictest control over their personal data) has jumped from 25 in 1990 to 37 in 2002.

Barrett made her predictions during an overview of the history of privacy regulation, which she gave at the National Center for Database Marketing conference in Long Beach, CA.

Telemarketing may be in for some rough times during the next five years, which is how long the first rush of names on the federal do-not-call registry will remain on the file. But the industry will rebound and slowly recover as marketers introduce more responsibility into the sales process, according to Jennifer Barrett, company privacy leader at Acxiom Corp.

For one thing, the rush of consumers to join the do-not-call list will subside, Barrett said.

And marketers will give their customers more granular opt-out options, allowing them to self-select which offers are relevant. Finally, firms will become better at pointing out the benefits to consumers of allowing telemarketing offers.

Barrett predicted that of the 60 million the industry anticipates as signing up to the list by Oct. 1, only half will re-enlist in 2008. But this does not mean that telemarketers should immediately start calling them again. Telemarketing is all about relevance and respect, Barrett said. Responsible marketers will collect intelligence about household sensitivities to telemarketing and use it, test innovative scripts, and honor requests to opt out of individual company databases.

As for other channels, Barrett said that spam will be minimized through a combination of legislation, technology filters and an industry code of conduct, and direct mail will continue to be the least regulated medium.

She also predicts that information from third parties will be somewhat harder to get and more expensive, that there will be a small decline in the number of lists on the market after broad-based privacy legislation passes and that access to private sector information by the government will be regulated.

These shifts will occur because consumers