Privacy was one of the hot topics at Direct’s annual business-to-business list roundtable this summer, moderated by consultant Bob Castle.
Participants included Deb Goldstein, president, IDG List Services; Ryan Lake, CEO, Lake Group; Ralph Drybrough, CEO, MeritDirect; John Papalia, president/CEO, Statlistics; Tim Barlow, vice president, list service group, Venture Direct Marketing; Ed Mallin, group president, Walter Karl; and Jay Schwedelson, corporate vice president, Worldata.
For more from both the B-to-B and consumer list roundtables, see the August issue of Direct magazine.
CASTLE: Do any of you fear privacy legislation?
MALLIN: Obviously, we’re in a bit of a unique position here because we’re also a compiler of one of the largest business files in America. The privacy laws that are being considered would restrict our ability to compile information, even public source information that has been readily available for 20, 30 years. So there’s no question there are challenges there. We as an industry still haven’t figured out how to position ourselves both federally and with local state governments [and] get our messages across.
SCHWEDELSON: The difference between consumer and B-to-B is very apparent. But on a day-to-day basis, how much is this affecting us right now? We have an in-house service bureau where we run most of the files we work with. Over the last three months, we’ve gotten hit with so many compliance audits — firms actually coming down and auditing our facility to make sure we’re up to snuff to house their data. So from a real day to day level, even without the legislation passing, its affecting us in that our security measures have to be that much better. There has to be that much more due diligence on every level. Things are getting even more complicated without legislation.
MALLIN: On staff, we have three people dedicated to privacy. Especially if you’re engaged in the online business and you maintain a service bureau in that area, it’s a prerequisite. You have to reinvest in the business.
PAPALIA: We all work harder to make the same money, because we have to invest in additional people to take care of privacy and this and that. Again, it’s not increasing revenues — it’s increasing costs to get to square one.
GOLDSTEIN: I’m keeping IDG’s lawyers pretty busy these days, just with standard agreements. And I’m sure all of us have seen the elevated litigious aspect of our business overall, which also creates certain elements of cost. It’s a pretty serious issue. There’s no question it’s centering on the consumer [side]. But I’m afraid that because the legislators don’t have a clear understanding of our business, the language of these types of laws could be so broadbased it could translate to the B-to-B side. Essentially, the FTC does not differentiate between consumer and B-to-B data in terms of personal identifying information. We need to watch out for that. We certainly can’t ignore what is happening on the consumer side.
BARLOW: One of my fears is that like the pharmaceutical industry, we’re going to have compliance regulations, and we’re going to have [to hire] compliance staff in the not so distant future. Throw in the business of data warehousing, and we also run the risk of having regulations that are going to be heavy to bear. Public information like a name and address is now being cast in a light like private information, and that’s daunting to think that’s going to be subject to scrutiny.
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