• by Chad Little , October 6, 2009

It's no secret that the behavioral marketing industry has been working to implement self-regulation policies for the past year. The initial purpose of this was to avoid impending legislation that the government is exploring due to concerns brought forth from advocacy groups about consumer privacy and data protection online. The thought was if we could self regulate, the government would be appeased and the threat of litigation would go away. Well, that really isn't the case. In my opinion it's not 'if' legislation will come -- it's 'when' it will come and 'what' will that legislation be.

Now, I'm not predicting that legislation can come any day now -- this is a complex issue. Complex when you take into account the number of forms of behavioral targeting available, the fact that this is a worldwide issue, and that this legislation needs to take into account how to speak to new and emerging technologies in the mobile and RFID sectors.

While I don't believe we aren't going to prevent legislation, I do believe that can still do something about it.

My hope is that our industry would be open and able to quickly change our position. Will we continue to fight or immediately jump in to help craft it? Remember the telemarketing industry, if you will. They were given some of the same warnings we have received, and they chose to fight legislation until the biter, biter end. I think that if they would have accepted that legislation was inevitable and worked with legislators that things could have turned out very differently for them. I believe the same can be true for our industry.

We live in a new environment, in a world that is leaning more and more towards regulation and legislation. There is no way that those who are pushing for get strict measures in place are going to just go away. In fact, their voices are going to get louder as new and more aggressive forms of marketing come in to play.

Do I think legislation in our industry is going to really solve anything? No, unfortunately I don't. The issue is growing too complex to be dealt with via regulation. I still think it will be up to those in the industry to fight the bad characters that will enter our space, much like we are working to do now with self-regulation. It's the complexity and the confusion that legislation can cause is what is the most concerning. Will the powers-that-be truly understand what is going on inside our industry? Will the future legislation bring innovation to a halt? Hopefully not if we give our cooperation and input into the process. That decision is completely up to us -- and I suggest it's time.