FTC Commissioner Orson Swindle Featured Guest at Silicon Valley Event ITAA hosted an October 10th speech on online privacy by FTC Commissioner Orson Swindle in Redwood City, Ca. The Commissioner had dissented form the FTC decision to ask Congress for broader regulatory authority on privacy. According to Swindle, consumer concern about the privacy of their personally identifying information is legitimate, and, in the past, has been dealt with rather loosely by many in industry. There has been profound change in the past couple of years. Privacy concerns are growing and industry is responding.
Awareness stimulates concerns.
Concerns result in demands and disgruntled customers. The market place responds to demands, and successful firms truly do seek to satisfy customers. Clearly, industry has the motivation and the skills to solve this problem better than government bureaucrats for all the right and obvious reasons. He went on to urge corporate leadership to make consumer privacy protection a part of their corporate culture and a major corporate goal. And, finally, we should all work to make sure that Congress doesn't create more problems than it attempts to solve.