AFFIRMATIVE-CONSUMER/INTERNET-SOLVENCY� 376

OPT-IN PRIVACY PROPOSALS ARE EFFECTIVE

WE MUST USE OPT IN PRIVACY SYSTEMS, NOT OPT OUT ARANGEMENTS

WILLIAM SAFIRE; The Houston Chronicle, September 24, 1999, SECTION: A; Pg. 38 TITLE: Consumer faces growing invasion of privacy // acs-EE2001

But even that opt out puts the burden of protection on the potential victim, and most people are too busy or lazy to initiate self-protection.

Far more effective would be what privacy advocates call opt in - requiring the state or business to request permission of individual customers before selling their names to practitioners of "target marketing."

In practical terms, the difference between opt in and opt out is the difference between a door locked with a bolt and a door left ajar. But in a divided appeals court - under the strained rubric of commercial free speech - the intrusive telecommunications giant U S West won. Its private customers and the public are the losers.

OPT IN PROVISIONS PROTECT PRIVACY

Michelle Singletary The Washington Post, January 31, 1999, SECTION: FINANCIAL; Pg. H02; TITLE: Whose Information Is It, Anyway?; Consumers Have Few Rights to Privacy of Personal Data // acs-EE2001

There ought to be a law giving us an automatic "opt-in" right whereby companies would have to tell us what information it might sell or share, to whom and for what purpose.

PERMISSION MARKETING IS A GOOD WAY TO IMPLEMENT OPT-IN PRIVACY PROTECTIONS

Matt Reed, New Media Age, December 2, 1999; Pg. 23 TITLE: Protecting personal data// acs-VT2001

Gerrard believes that there is also a trend within the industry towards 'permission marketing' - marketing that is based on opt-in selection rather than opt-out.

Permission marketing may be more effective, reckons Gerrard, because recipients will be more open to material they have asked for. "If we (use) opt -in then you can expect that they are interested in what you're doing," says Gerrard.