The Global Business Dialog on E-Commerce (GBDe), now meeting in Paris (see separate story), has come under heavy fire for its guidelines for privacy on the internet. Privacy advocates are outraged that the GBDe is pushing the self-regulation line. Businesses keep saying the same two words – ‘trust us’ – but consumers are increasingly finding themselves helpless when their privacy is compromised, said Junkbusters Corp president Jason Catlett. What ‘self- regulation’ really means is ‘no rights’. What they mean by ‘privacy technology’ is usually ‘privacy-reducing technology’. Big businesses and the US Government should stop opposing legal privacy rights.
Catlett is, however, facing an uphill battle in his attempts to persuade the GBDe to consider a legislated approach to consumer privacy. The group consists of the CEOs of 100 world e-commerce players and is intended to be their voice on e-commerce issues. Where regulation can not be avoided, it says, the GBDe purposes to work with governments and international organizations to develop business-led, self regulatory systems which create consumer confidence and maintain efficiency. Since its whole raison d’etre is to maintain a unified front against laws which may be costly to implement, the GBDe is unlikely to change its tactics at this late stage – not even in the face of Catlett’s vehemence.
