The Direct Marketing Association, in an effort to head off government regulation, plans to require members to allow consumers to "opt out" of direct-marketing phone, postal, and email lists and to disclose to consumers whether and how the firms give out personal information. The public will also be able to tell marketers to not sell information about them to other marketers.
The rules, deemed legal by the Federal Trade Commission antitrust division Tuesday, came after the government and privacy groups demanded that the marketers give consumers more control over who asks them for money over the phone and by electronic and snail mail.
"This could actually be of value to consumers and marketers alike," said Connie Heatley, senior vice president of the marketing association. "Companies that offer privacy protection can set themselves apart."
The association has a list of 3.3 million people who don't want junk mail, and a list of 600,000 people who don't want unsolicited phone calls. Heatley said the group is choosing a vendor to draw up the email list. As condition for membership in the associaton, marketers must allow consumers to opt out of marketing and be placed on these lists. Currently, respecting consumer opt-out requests is optional.
But the new rules may be too little, too late for direct marketers to avoid official action. Although the marketing association boasts 3,200 members, many of whom are big players in direct marketing, the trade commission notes that the group includes just a small percentage of all direct marketers and few of the spammers exciting online rage. To give it time to educate members and consumers, the association says the rules won't become mandatory until July 1999.
At least one close observer is dubious about that time requirement.
"I don't think it adds to their credibility to say they need two years, especially since their members don't include the community of spammers that need to be regulated," said Shabbir Safdar, founder of the Voters Telecommunication Watch.
"Someone will do something about spam before 1999. That's almost assured."
At a June trade commission workship on electronic consumer privacy, the marketing association told commissioners and privacy groups that it was developing the guidelines and asked that the government hold off on regulating the industry to give self-regulation a chance. The commission gave all parties a six months to come up with a plan, and the Center for Democracy and Technology has been holding meetings on the issue. In addition, several lawmakers have introduced bills to curb unsolicited email.
