FTC to hold privacy workshop next month

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by Patrick Thibodeau

(IDG) -- The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) plans to hold a workshop next month to examine the data privacy issues raised by the exchange of personal information among different companies, with a controversial consumer profiling initiative expected to be a key topic of discussion.

The FTC announced late last Friday that the one-day privacy workshop will be held March 13 at its headquarters here. The March session will be the latest in an ongoing series of such events put on by the FTC, and it follows a December workshop that focused on the privacy implications of wireless services that use location-tracking technology.

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The upcoming workshop also comes in the wake of letters that were sent to the FTC and other government officials in December by U.S. Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.), who expressed concern about the Customer Profile Exchange Network, a group of 70-plus companies that has proposed a standard method of pooling and exchanging data on consumer buying habits and other personal information.

Known more informally as CPExchange, the group released an initial version of its proposed standard last fall. But in his letter, Shelby claimed that the technology would give companies a "vastly improved ability to share and exploit personal information in pursuit of profit."

According to a notice about the March hearing that's being published in the Federal Register, the FTC plans "to explore how detailed consumer profiles . . . are created and used by entities other than third-party Internet advertising networks." In particular, the commission is seeking input on whether there are "new technologies or technical standards that may increase the sharing of detailed consumer information" and whether they include built-in privacy protections.

Shelby had requested that the FTC investigate the CPExchange's plans. Andrea Andrews, a spokeswoman for the senator, said yesterday that the upcoming workshop will be "an important first step in learning more about the issues and the resulting privacy implications" of the group's proposed data-sharing standard.

The intent of the workshop is to learn about practices and technologies used in exchanging personal information among different companies, said Jessica Rich, assistant director for the Bureau of Consumer Affairs at the FTC. "We don't know whether there are consumer issues that should raise concerns yet," she added. "We're really at the beginning of just a factual look."

For privacy advocates such as Jason Catlett, president of Junkbusters Corp., a consulting firm in Green Brook, N.J., the CPExchange standard raises privacy concerns such as "the lack of ability of ordinary people to see the information that's held about them." In addition, Catlett said it would be unfair for companies to sell information "without the knowledge of and consent" of the people who supplied the data.

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Federal Trade Commission

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