Internet Mailing Lists vs. Specter-Leahy data security bill

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>
Date: June 30, 2005 11:48:18 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Cc: lauren () vortex com
Subject: Internet Mailing Lists vs. Specter-Leahy data security bill


> From: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
> Date: June 30, 2005 1:13:55 AM EDT
> To: politech () politechbot com
...

> That's defined as a "business entity" that it's in the
> regular business of "collecting, transmitting, or otherwise providing
> personally identifiable information" of 5,000 or more people that are
> not "customers" or "employees."

I suspect that as far as self-subscribed Internet mailing lists are
concerned, "customers" is a key word.  The sorts of mailing lists
that we (Declan, Dave, me, etc.) run are all self-subscribed lists
where persons have voluntarily signed themselves up to receive our
electronic mailings, which we provide as a free service.  Even
though no money is changing hands in our cases, those recipients can
still be viewed as "customers" of our mailings -- at the very least
they fulfill the key aspect of having a direct relationship with
us that they have initiated by signing up.  Nor do we provide or
sell our mailing lists to other entities.

So I believe that it would be a considerable stretch to extend the
"data broker" rules to this situation.

On the other hand, there may well be applicability of such a "data
broker" law to many spammers, who often collect e-mail addresses
without the permission of the persons involved, send unsolicited
mailings, and frequently buy and sell those mailings lists like bags
of potatos.

--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren () pfir org or lauren () vortex com or lauren () eepi org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
  - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, EEPI
  - Electronic Entertainment Policy Initiative - http://www.eepi.org
Moderator, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
DayThink: http://daythink.vortex.com



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