Privacy - A sign of things to come?

From: Sharon Tucci <Sharon_at_listhost.net>
Date: Wed 13 Mar 2002 13:56:51 -0600

For those of you who do any type of marketing to Canadians,
you may want to be aware of proposed privacy legislation
for individuals and businesses in Ontario, Canada. From
what I am hearing, it is looking like the legislation
will pass as is. This would have devastating effects on
the direct marketing industry.

Even if you do not market to Canadians at this time, you
should still be concerned. The possible precedent of
privacy legislation being passed in Canada such as this is
not good news for anyone in this industry.

I am 100% in favor of government legislation and by *most*
marketing standards, I am somewhat of a hard liner when it
comes to permission issues, however, this goes beyond any
sense of reason.

I'll give you a nutshell version of the key points of this
legislation as far as I understand it.

* The most important - part of this proposed legislation
is that there is no grandfathering provision. This makes
any information you may have compiled in ways other than
through the policies laid out on residents and businesses
in Ontario, Canada just about useless.

* Individuals must not only opt-in, but they must give
consent if any personal information is to be used other
than for it's original intent.

* It *appears* that individual consent is required for
*each* incident that personal information is disclosed to
a third party.

* Individual consent must be obtained before a list is
rented or sold.

* Transfer of data to any agent for processing can only
be done with the permission of the individual.

* For current customers, if they have not specifically
opted in to receive future marketing materials, you must
obtain their consent before you can email them the same.

Our company is an ASP - providing email delivery services.
I estimate that at least 90% of our own client roster
would need to take SOME action if this legislation goes
through as is (without a grandfathering provision).

For us, the good news is that our own policies are about
95% in compliance with the proposed legislation, should
it become law. There are only 2 minor things that customers
would need to do when it comes to the collection of new
subscriber data.

My gut is saying that the legislation won't go through as
is. The direct marketing industry in Ontario is too large
for this to happen. It's a tradeoff - thousands of jobs
being lost versus extreme actions to protect individual
privacy. With the Ontario government already being on shaky
ground, I can't see that they'll risk re-election.

You can obtain more information about this proposed
legislation by going to the Ministry of Consumer and
Business Services web site at
http://www.cbs.gov.on.ca or go to the direct link
<http://www.cbs.gov.on.ca/mcbs/english/56HK6V.htm>.


Sharon Tucci
President & CEO
Sling Shot Media, LLC
http://www.ListHost.net
1-877-LISTHOST





Received on Wed Mar 13 2002 - 13:56:51 CST