Essential Reading for Marketing & Business Professionals
Thursday January 31st 2008

Insights in this issue:
* Is the Information Commissioner getting serious?
* Email or Direct Mail - which is greener?
* P&G lead the way in Privacy
* Data Protection Compliance 2008 - DATE CHANGE

Data Privacy is once again hitting the
headlines - the Information Commissioner
wants more powers, M&S get an enforcement
notice from him and P&G launch a Privacy
website.

This is the year in which the DMA promised
that 55% of Direct Mail would be re-cycled.
So we thought we'd take a look to see which
is greener, Email or Direct Mail. Which do
you think? Read on and see if you were
right......

James Pearson - Editor

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Is the Information Commissioner getting serious?

In the last four weeks we've heard about MoD
and Marks & Spencer laptops that went
missing with large volumes of personal data
on them. According to the Metropolitan Police
over 6000 laptops were reported stolen in
2007 in London alone. Many of them probably
had large databases on them in various forms.

So perhaps its no surprise that Richard
Thomas, the Information Commissioner, has now
formally stated that his powers are currently
too weak to enforce the law effectively. In
evidence to the House of Lords Justice
Committee on 3rd January he asked for several
improvements:

· power to require organisations to
commission an independent audit on their data
processing

· power to inspect personal data and the
circumstances surrounding its processing

· a requirement for specified organisations
to declare in their Annual Reports that they
are satisfied that they have put appropriate
security measures into place

· a requirement to notify the ICO, and the
individuals affected, where data security
breach presents a real risk of causing
substantial damage or distress to individuals

· a new criminal offence where organisations
have knowingly or recklessly failed to comply
with DP principles

· wider use of Privacy Impact Assessments.

Given the recent very public data losses it
is not surprising that he is asking for these
powers. Our advice to clients today is:

1) encrypt ALL laptops as a matter of course
- the Information Commissioner has just
required Marks & Spencer to do this)
2)
where people need access to data while they
are out of the office, use Virtual Private
Networks (VPNs) and web-hosted applications
to deliver it.
The reputational risk of
data loss caused by laptop theft simply makes
any other approach unacceptable - as M&S and
the MoD have found to their cost.

Click here to read the full details of the M&S enforcement notice

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Email or Direct Mail - which is greener?

In 2003 the Direct Marketing Association came
to an agreement with the Department for the
Environment and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) that by
January 2009 55% of all delivered Direct Mail
would be re-cycled. Currently the level of
re-cycling is believed to be way below this
level. The problem for the DMA is that Direct
Mail is, too often, seen as "Junk Mail" and
there is real fear that if the target is not
met then the government may legislate.

So, will Direct Mail users be forced to
switch to Email? Is it greener than Direct
Mail? On the surface it looks like Email must
be. But do the facts bear this out? To find
out read this article in full by clicking on
the link below.

Click here to find out which is greener, Email or Direct Mail

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
P&G lead the way in Privacy

Procter & Gamble is not a company you would
necessarily link to a privacy initiative. But
they have recently revamped their site and
added a huge section on privacy. That a
company like P&G feels the need to do this
shows just how emotive topic personal privacy
is becoming. Here's what P&G say on the site:

Commitment to Privacy

The basic foundation of Procter & Gamble's
Global Privacy Program is to earn and
maintain your trust. P&G collects and uses
personal information to provide world-class
products and services of superior quality for
our consumers, customers, employees and
others. We limit the collection of personal
information to what we need to know in order
to achieve our goal of providing superior
quality and value. For example, we use e-mail
addresses to send consumers, shareholders or
job applicants information they have
requested. And we use consumer and employee
feedback to improve our products and services.

Without doubt consumers are now far more
sensitive about their personal data than they
were in 2007. If you are not already
reviewing your data privacy strategy and
policies we would strongly recommend it be
given consideration. You can see the P&G
website on the link below.

Click here to visit the P&G Privacy site

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Data Protection Compliance 2008 - DATE CHANGE

The second annual Data Protection conference
for companies doing business in the US and
the EU takes place in Dublin on 21st February
2008.
And like last year the Agenda is packed
with interesting and insightful speakers.

This conference is not designed purely for
Lawyers, it has very useful content for
Marketers who are genuinely concerned about
ensuring they stay on the right side of the
law when engaging in marketing activities in
the EU.

For the full Agenda and booking form, please click here