This is an example of applying conventional credit-report laws too literally in the context of online privacy. An August FTC report noted that the intrusive actions of online profilers affect millions of consumers, often without their control or knowledge. DoubleClick, Inc., the largest online advertising firm, has profiled roughly 100 million people, with an undisclosed number linked to personal data. Engage, Inc. claims 70 million profiles. Presumably, few of these individuals are aware that their mouse clicks have been profiled and stored.
Consumers display varying sensitivity to privacy issues.
European regulators apparently believe that the sorting of a spreadsheet somehow touches the people listed. In truth, data movement, sorting and correlation do not affect anyone until some action, like a coupon mailing, is taken downstream. In the U.S. mindset, such a data-protection law seems like Julia Child telling viewers that the key to the recipe is not to handle the dough too much. Then again, maybe Europeans better understand the scope of the problem. With genetic engineering on the horizon, people in the future will want assurances that their DNA codes are private.