The dark side of Web personalization is the potential for
privacy violation, as e-marketers amass more and more personal
information on consumers.
That issue hits home with Don Darragh, director of sales
and marketing at ASCC Inc., a network consultant and
integrator in Western Pennsylvania. Darragh says the U.S.
Constitution's Bill of Rights protects a person's
individuality and identity in the "real" world. For
the e-world, he proposes a "Personalization Bill of
Rights" to protect individuality and identity. Darragh
has drafted a list of rights as part of a paper on the
personalization vs. privacy dilemma. You can check that out at
www.crm-forum.com/crm_forum_white_ papers/ pbr/ppr.htm.
Summarized, Darragh's Personalization Bill of Rights says
one is entitled to the following:
- The right to establish relationships by creating or
joining cyber communities of like-minded individuals (like
the Constitution's Bill of Rights' free assembly).
- The right to keep and bear "arms," which
Darragh views as the right of individuals to defend their
privacy through anonymity and encryption.
- The right of individuals to have exclusive ownership and
use of their electronic identities (e-ID), unless they
expressly grant that right to another party for a specific
time and purpose.
- The right to freedom from illegal search or seizure of
individuals' e-IDs. "There is no such thing as a
public e-ID, and the fact that companies or governments
have 'collected and mined' my information does not make it
theirs," Darragh notes.
- The right of individuals to determine when, how and with
whom their e-IDs are used.
- The right of individuals to a speedy and public trial
when others criminally misuse their e-IDs.
- The right of individuals to trial by jury for
accusations of criminal use of e-IDs.
- The right of individuals to free and unrestricted e-ID
use, unconstrained by taxes, fines, fees, regulations or
unusual bureaucratic encumbrances.
- Individuals retain the rights not presently enumerated
for their e-IDs.
- Individuals retain rights not expressly given to federal
or state governments regarding e-IDs.
Who will guarantee those privacy principles? Darragh says
industry self-regulation is "a myth because there is too
much money and marketing power concentrated in too few hands
for that to work." As for the regulators, Darragh views
government intervention as onerous and not to anyone's
advantage.
Darragh believes it is up to individuals to secure their
rights. He advocates the use of personal e-ID encrypted
software that lets individuals create their own electronic
personae. Those personae could reside on consumers' PCs or at
a third-party consolidation site, according to Darragh.
Companies, organizations and governments would have to request
permission to use the personae.
Darragh is considering expanding upon his
personalization-rights paper to include ethical and moral
considerations, as well as legal precedent and constitutional
law. But anyway one slices it, personalization is a tough
issue to nail down.
John Moore is services editor of Sm@rt Partner. He can
be reached at jpmoore@ziffdavis.com.
