In this climate, Evan Hendricks, publisher of the newsletter Privacy Times, says the chances for online privacy bills appear dim. It's a rather specious argument to say that privacy laws are going to cause our economy to tank. A report on catalog apparel retailers estimated that companies would need to boost total mailings to achieve the same number of responses if they could not use consumer information databases to tailor their marketing offers to the most promising customers. These are very political reports being dropped into the legislative process to make a point. Legislation is not on our agenda.
Some early signs suggest the business lobbying effort is starting to pay off.
The debate has slowed down as people take a more fine-tuned look at what it all means. The slowing economy and dot-com meltdown are giving ammunition to business lobbyists arguing for more modest restrictions. Well, it may not be golden anymore, but it still contains a lot of the future. Other business leaders believe that federal privacy legislation is unavoidable and instead are focusing on ensuring that the rules are not too costly. This debate will never come to a standstill.