Count the Direct Marketing Association among the opponents to a draft of a privacy bill released this week by Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.). The group argues that the measure "has potentially
sweeping impacts for direct marketers working across every marketing channel."
"Requiring notice and consent from an individual prior to any collection, use, or disclosure of information for
any purpose would threaten the most basic of direct marketing practices," the DMA said Wednesday in a statement.
The draft bill says that ad networks that track people and collect information
must have users' consent. But the proposal says networks need only obtain opt-out consent if they provide prominent notice through an icon and also allow people to view and edit their profiles. A few
ad companies, including Google, Yahoo and BlueKai, already give users this ability. Ad networks that collect data about consumers without allowing them to access and revise their profiles would have
to obtain users' opt-in consent.
Some consumer advocates have already criticized the bill on the
grounds that it doesn't go far enough to protect privacy. They also argue that the bill's provisions allowing companies to obtain opt-out consent as long as consumers can revamp their marketing
profiles would largely codify the current notice and opt-out system.
But the DMA's Linda Woolley, executive vice president, government affairs, says that the legislation could hurt the online ad
industry. First of all, she says, it will take companies time to develop tools that allow consumers to view and edit their profiles. Developing such tools "could be a very good idea -- but it's not
going to happen immediately," she says.
In addition, she argues, self-regulation is preferable to legislation. "I would really like for the self-regulatory program that we've come up with to have
time to develop," she says. Woolley adds that some of the components of the draft bill -- such as the icons -- grew out of voluntary industry efforts.
The DMA also is concerned that the bill
would require catalog companies, data brokers and other offline businesses to obtain consumers' opt-in consent before sharing data about them.
The Association of National Advertisers hasn't yet
taken an official position on the draft, but executive vice president of government relations Dan Jaffe says the draft proposal "would be very disruptive" to online and offline marketers.
He adds
that technology in this area is likely to change faster than legislation can be updated. "We think that the self-regulatory approach is the best one and that there is no reason for the government to
be locking things in," Jaffe says. "None of us are smart enough to know what's coming down the road three months from now."