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ONLINE PRIVACY ALLIANCE APPLAUDS INITIATIVE BY INTERNET NETWORK ADVERTISING COMPANIES TO PROTECT CONSUMER PRIVACY OPA Tells Officials at Federal Trade Commission/Commerce Department Workshop that Industry is Building Effective System of Privacy Self-Regulation WASHINGTON, D.C. (Nov. 8, 1999) - The Online Privacy Alliance, a coalition of about 90 global companies and associations committed to self-regulation of consumer privacy online, today applauded efforts by Internet network advertising companies to enhance transparency in their business practices and give consumers greater choice. The industry initiative was announced today at a public workshop on online profiling, sponsored by the FTC and Department of Commerce. The Internet network advertising companies agreed to adopt policies that allow consumers to find out what information is being collected by the marketers and to prevent its use for profiling. "We fully support this coalition's initiative and believe that self-regulation by the Internet network advertising companies is vitally important," said Tim Lordan, who represented the OPA at the workshop. "The proposal announced by these companies contains the key elements of consumer notice and choice, as well as effective enforcement, the same matters addressed in the Online Privacy Alliance guidelines." The OPA guidelines, which have become an industry framework for the creation of a credible privacy policy, can be found at www.privacyalliance.org. The guidelines provide businesses with basic issues that must be addressed in creating a policy for informing consumers about how a Web site collects, uses and shares the information it collects from visitors to a site. The OPA Guidelines explain the need to post an easy-to-find and easy-to-understand privacy policy to build consumer trust online. Privacy policies must address notice and disclosure, consumer choice and consent, data security and data quality and access. The OPA also has created a framework for effective regulation of online privacy and encourages companies to participate in one of the third-party enforcement programs, such as, BBBOnLine, TRUSTe, or CPA's Web Trust. "We look forward to working with the Internet network advertising companies to ensure the continued expansion of a system that offers consumers information on which to make informed decisions and the opportunity to exercise choice in how data is used," Lordan said.
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