Taking Privacy Seriously

This article contains older information. Go here for newer information on e-mail marketing.

Irresponsible spammers hurt all of us, since they erode the trust necessary for e-mail marketing to work effectively. Recently, the US Federal Trade Commission issued a scathing report on Internet privacy issues and is recommending legislation to Congress on rules for collecting information from children, with further recommendations to follow. Several European countries already have strict privacy laws.

It is vital that all online marketers develop, post, and scrupulously observe a privacy policy, which states exactly how you will use data collected from your site visitors. I have a link to our site's privacy policy (http://www.wilsonweb.com/clients/privacy-policy.htm) adjacent to nearly every one of our forms to help build confidence in our integrity.

You can find specific help in developing a privacy policy from the Direct Marketing Association (http://www.the-dma.org/policy.html). Since this issue profoundly affects all Web marketers, we are also tracking the issue on a new section of our Web Marketing Info Center (http://www.wilsonweb.com/webmarket/privacy.htm).

There's nothing wrong with planning to sell your list to third parties, but you need to state this clearly and ask permission of your Web visitor to use their information in this way. Though often asked to, we never rent our Web Marketing Today list or use it for commercial mailings, and we state this clearly in our policy. Rather, we include paid advertisements in the newsletter to generate the revenue necessary to enable publication.

Read more articles from Web Marketing Today, Issue 46, June 1, 1998