Find Safe Harbor in Privacy Policies

Warning: Some of what you may read these days is neither for the faint of heart nor for those who fear change. While I urge you to continue reading this column, I also urge you to continue to find new and creative ways to weather the economic storm within which we find ourselves. Even as we are confronted daily with bleak economic news, I find myself thinking about the old saw that “with opportunities come challenges.” I am comforted by this saying because I believe the reverse also holds true—challenges can be the bearers of opportunity. If you believe that, too, then these times may present opportunities like no other; at least since the last economic bubble burst. On the privacy front, I am buoyed (my CEO currently is enamored with boat and ship metaphors—score one for me!) by the fact that as new business models are created and new partnerships formed (either by necessity or by newfound creativity), privacy continues to be top-of-mind. I have seen this top-of-mind sentiment in action both within my own company, as potential partnerships and new business ideas are evaluated, and as a consumer. Even at a time when we’re all challenged by economic pressures, it is reassuring to see how so many organizations pay attention to privacy as they seek to leverage more or different data from multiple channels. A few months ago, well after the economic ship started to list, I received an e-mail from one of the biggest consumer packaged goods brands in the world about changes to its privacy policy. It laid out in clear English—not the legalese that is so often tempting for us to default to—the changes the company was undertaking and how I then might change the way I interacted with the brand. The e-mail politely thanked me for being a customer. It told me that the company changed its privacy policy. It reminded me of its commitment to maintaining my trust. It summarized the specifics of the changes, spoke briefly about the consumer benefits of the changes, allowed me to view the update and provided an easy way to unsubscribe. A month later, a social network site prominently displayed a banner at the top of my homepage alerting me to updates to its privacy policy. Then a prominent lead-generation site posted a very noticeable privacy policy update on its homepage. These are just three of the more recent examples I cite time and again with clients about how to take advantage of new business opportunities while still affording consumers the opportunity to choose whether they want to participate. I believe these examples are instructive to the rest of us searching for ways to operationalize changes that are brought by the prevailing headwinds in this environment. The Direct Marketing Association’s Guidelines for Ethical Business Practices (Article 38) actually describe the steps necessary to accomplish such updates to an organization’s privacy policy. Here is an excerpt. More details are available in the DMA’s Do the Right Thing compliance booklet: If your organization’s [privacy] policy changes materially with respect to the sharing of personally identifiable information with third parties for marketing purposes, you will update your policy and give consumers conspicuous notice to that effect, offering an opportunity to opt out. This kind of proactive communications is good for your business and good for consumers. It is a win-win situation. These actions also are proof that the industry takes seriously its mandate to self-regulate. As noted by the DMA, Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and other trade associations in recent comments on behavioral advertising to the Federal Trade Commission, the industry continues to build on its record of doing the right thing. And that, hopefully, should lead to fewer regulatory/legislative waves, especially in the midst of this economic storm. Kudos to the hard work of so many of my colleagues who have built up awareness of privacy in the boardroom and on Main Street. Kudos, too, to the International Association of Privacy Professionals for helping nurture the profession’s growth, as well as associations like DMA, IAB and others that provide forums for the exchange of ideas and rules of the road that keep us all well-informed and in line with generally accepted principles and consumer expectations. Lou Mastria, CIPP, is chief privacy officer and vice president of public affairs at NextAction Corp., a Westminster, Colo.-based provider of cooperative data solutions for multichannel retailers. He can be reached at (908) 363-0983, or by e-mail at lou.mastria@nextaction.net.

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Find Safe Harbor in Privacy Policies

Lou Mastria

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Lou Mastria