The Privacy Pirates

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Two statements in this policy clearly state what has been only implied by other firms' policies: "While your Account Information may be personal to you, these records constitute business records that are owned by AT&T." Also: "Please read this Privacy Policy carefully. Before using your Service(s), you must agree to this Policy."

Prominently featured on the top of the AT&T privacy-policy page is a seal of an organization called "Trust-E" (www.truste.org). Trust-E is an independent nonprofit organization joined by many corporations that tout the seal prominently on their Web sites. The group investigates "eligible privacy complaints" about their licensees.

CONSUMER RIGHTS?

One of the prerequisites for an eligible complaint that Trust-E will investigate is: "The complaint alleges that the Licensee collected, used, or disclosed the personally identifiable information in a manner inconsistent with its published online privacy statement." That's it. The presence of a Trust-E seal simply means that the member company will abide by its own policy, which in most cases, can be changed in seconds. Trust-E is an idea that sounds much better than it really is, primarily because it is funded and, to a large extent, run by the same companies that it ought to be watching. Their sponsors, for instance, are AOL, DoubleClick, Intuit (INTU), and Microsoft.

As consumers, we should be entitled to only give out our information when we want, and maintain some control over its subsequent disposition, including mandatory erasure when our business relationship is terminated. If a company wants to use our valuable data, they should pay us, just like we should pay to use software or watch a movie. Scamming our information through privacy policies may be legal, but ethically bereft, occurring only in the vacuum of meaningful consumer privacy regulation.

Absent a strong claim of ownership for personal data, it will become increasingly difficult to force respectful and equitable treatment online from many companies. Congress should establish the ownership issue now, before AT&T's trial policy becomes an industry standard.

Holtzman is the former CTO of Network Solutions and the editor of Globalpov.com, a blog that explores social changes brought about by information technology. He is the author of the book, “Privacy Lost”, which will be published by Wiley in September