FTC Workshop Highlights Privacy Concerns in Database Marketing

If you showed up at the Federal Trade Commission's workshop on the privacy implications of database marketing Tuesday, the answer is probably still no. The Commission took a hard look at the likes of Acxiom and Abacus, massive marketing databases that . . . If you showed up at the Federal Trade Commission's workshop on the privacy implications of database marketing Tuesday, the answer is probably still no. The Commission took a hard look at the likes of Acxiom and Abacus, massive marketing databases that cover the purchasing habits of at least 90 percent of America's 100 million households.

Little is known about the databases, but privacy advocates have made hay of gaffes such as the subpoenaing of Monica Lewinsky's book purchases by special prosecutor Ken Starr and sporadic problems with prisoners who have handled databases from jail. So they repeated their call to open the databases today, despite the absence of nearly every major marketing database vendor in the United States.

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