The online privacy debate a new buzz phrase today: "Respectful engagement." Unfortunately, like so many other catchphrases, it's so vague that it could mean anything. Still, those are the words
that AT&T's Greg McCastle used when asked by MediaLink's Michael Kassan how the telecom was going to approach online privacy in light of the news this weekend about Facebook. (The social
networking site said late Friday that it was shuttering its controversial Beacon ad program to settle a privacy lawsuit.) McCastle acknowledged that there was "tremendous value in the data that
AT&T collects across all of our screen," but added that the company wouldn't use that data without "respectful engagement" of consumers.
