Letter to Timothy J. Muris, Chairman Federal Trade Commission
July 1, 2003
The Honorable Timothy J. Muris
Federal Trade Commission
600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20580
Dear Chairman Muris:
I am writing to urge the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to launch an inquiry into an on-line marketing practice that many firms use to collect personal information about their customers and to develop federal guidelines for the collection of such information.
Firms who solicit personal information often post privacy policies aimed at assuring their customers that whatever data they provide will not be shared. These polices, however, often fail to fully disclose how this information will be used.
While many firms, for example, promise not to sell the data they collect from consumers, they instead rent or lend that information to outside marketers. This lack of disclosure is troubling because customers who decide to share their information are being misled into thinking that their data will be used a certain way.
It is my belief that these kinds of tactics have played a significant role in the extraordinary rise of the unsolicited emails known as spam that are overwhelming in-boxes around the nation. While these firms may be renting their email lists to legitimate companies, there are few safeguards in place to ensure that the data contained in these lists is protected from harvesters prowling for such information. In addition, many consumers have reported that they cannot easily opt out of receiving these emails. Indeed, the FTC has received over 1,000 complaints from consumers on this very issue.
Until mechanisms are put in place to ensure that firms asking for private information fully disclose their privacy polices, I would respectfully request that the FTC issue a consumer advisory alert to ensure that consumers are aware that some firms may not fully disclose the terms of the privacy polices they post on their website. An FTC consumer advisory alert would be the perfect means to do this while also providing a valuable stopgap until the guidelines are put in place.
Thank you for your consideration and I hope that we can work together to empower consumers with the means to control how their private data is used.
Sincerely,
Charles E. Schumer
United States Senator