The new administration hints it favors self-regulation. The industry's lobbying blitz is unabated. The study author, economist Michael Turner, says an opt-in rule would make such lists scarce. Online marketers and tech companies say the whole privacy debate is an unfair assault on the Net. They argue that the off-line hunt for sales prospects has gone on for decades with little harm, other than junk mail and telemarketing calls.
Opponents argue that the Web is different.
On the Internet, information can be collected while you're passively browsing. It's moving closer and closer to surveillance. But he believes that the Net does require more sensitive marketing practices. He agrees that traditionally off-line customers had no choice about whether purchases were tracked and used as sales fodder. Indeed, Wunderman's first brush with data-gathering was in 1949.