Privacy--why you should care.

The Newsletter Publishers Assn. does not have a privacy policy. The NPA Board hasn't even formally discussed a privacy policy.

This is passing strange, considering that:

* The Supreme Court just heard oral arguments in a major privacy case--states selling driver-license information.

* High-profile scare stories abound, like the one about the actress murdered by a stalker who got her personal information from a state motor vehicle administration.

* Lower-profile but still scary stories abound, like the one in The Wall Street Journal the other day. It quotes a Florida company, DBT Online Inc., offering information culled from "over 1,000 data sources containing billions of records as if they were part of a single database" accessible from the customer's desktop computer.

And privacy has the rest of the DM world in a lather:

* It was voted one of the top three DM issues of the millennium in a recent survey.

* "The marrying of offline and online information about consumers, and the connecting of that data to the delivery of their editorial content, is going to be one of the hottest political issues" in 2000, says the director of the Center for Media Education.

* The Direct Marketing Assn. has to do more on privacy, its president, H. Robert Wientzen, told a recent privacy conference. "We've got to keep on top of never-ending technological advances" and "assess how the changes are impacting consumer concerns," Weintzen said.

Other nations routinely provide stiffer protections than the U.S. For example:

* In Hong Kong, when you collect personal data, you must take "all practicable steps" to inform the person about the use to which the data will be put and what he or she must do to request correction (my italics) of the data.

* In Finland, the Office of the Data Protection Ombudsman states: "Privacy is a human right." Finnish law gives persons the right to "demand compensation" for damages caused by incorrect personal information. (Again, my italics.)

Most newsletter publishers would shrug this off. We're business-to-business, they say, and it's different than in the consumer marketing world.

Granted. But this issue isn't likely to go away, and we don't want to be blindsided. Consider taking steps right now, before the you-know-what hits the fan. Here are a few ideas:

1. Start telling prospects what you intend to do with their names. Offer them the chance to opt out of your lists. Put the policy on all your marketing pieces. Your lists may shrink, but the remaining names should be more responsive.

2. Post privacy policies on your website. It's a snap. The Direct Marketing Assn. will create a web privacy policy for you in about ten minutes and you don't even have to be a DMA member. You fill in an online form at its website and back comes your policy, ready to post. Visit www.the-dma.org/ topframe/index7.html.

3. Be extra careful about phone numbers, fax numbers, and especially e-mail addresses. Spam regulations seem inevitable eventually. When Congress holds these horror-story hearings, I'd hate to see a newsletter publisher among the rogues' gallery.

Now, about a national DM privacy policy.

Most individuals are friendly to targeted appeals and are willing to give up a lot of personal information--as long as marketers are open about how the information will be used. We know that from recent surveys by Privacy & American Business.

So why not reward people for letting us target them?

It's happening now. Safeway rewards "Safeway Shoppers Club" members with discounts for giving up personal data. Computer vendors are giving away machines to people willing to sit still for advertising. If the marketplace is willing, shouldn't Congress be willing, too?

P.S. John Wills passed away earlier this month at age 56. A sweet, generous guy, widely known and well beloved. I'll miss him. Frank S. Joseph, publisher at Key Communications Inc., is a well-known publishing consultant and direct mail copywriter, with clients throughout the newsletter industry. His thoughts on marketing, editorial, publishing and the newsletter industry appear regularly in NL/NL.