Thomas G. Gordon
Senior Vice President of Equifax, Inc.
General Manager of Equifax National Decision Systems
The Information Age is upon us. The global village is a reality and it offers greater business opportunities with more precise risk assessment than in past generations. Yet, the information age is fraught with misperceptions about the availability and use of information. People perceive there is little information that cannot be obtained by asking, and little that others cannot find out. They perceive there is a database for everything and that information in databases is available to anyone and everyone for the asking. They believe that consumers have lost all control over how personal information is circulated and used by companies. Americans feel their privacy is being threatened. They believe technology has taken away their control of information. Whether these perceptions are rooted in reality is not relevant. What is relevant, however, is consumer concern about the use of personal information in our society. Ethics and social responsibility demand that business heed and respond to this public concern.
Today, business must earn the public trust to survive. We do that by making ethical and socially responsible decisions. Custodians of information bear a great responsibility -- a stewardship in which ethical principles play a large part. Taking the high road means listening to critics: to those who want to limit our capabilities as well as those who want to expand them, to regulators and legislators, and to the consumers about whom we maintain information.
Privacy should be a source of competitive advantage. Giving consumers choice and control over the secondary use of individual information is a strong marketing strategy. For most organizations, privacy issues emerge at three stages: in the information-gathering process, during storage and internal use, and at point of sale. The most practical way that companies can respond to consumer privacy concerns is offering individuals the chance to opt out.
Every person has the right to be considered for credit, insurance, employment and other benefits on his/her own merit. Social responsibility demands that all involved present the information accurately and completely, and that the merit of the individual is thereby clearly portrayed to those who offer the benefits. Every person who seeks to qualify for a transaction should be treated with respect and fairness. Every person has a right to know what information has been reported on him/her so that its accuracy can be assured, corrected or explained.
Every person has a right to personal privacy consistent with the demands and requests he or she makes of business.
Every person is entitled to have this privacy safeguarded through the secure storage and careful transmittal of information.
As we examine the question of privacy in spatial databases it is critical that we answer two questions. First, for those individuals on whom we maintain point data, what is the level of privacy afforded to those individuals and second, is there a way to insure privacy by not maintaining individual data and still have adequate information to make informed business decisions. With regard to the first issue, it is critical that we understand that any collection of individual data whether it be for credit, direct mail, or spatial analysis should be afforded the same level of privacy. That fact that we are storing and retrieving individual data in a spatial context makes that information no less sensitive and no less private than other ways in which data is stored. If anything, when we use the individual data in a spatial retrieval system it increases the likelihood that the privacy of the individual could be compromised.
The simplest way to safeguard data is through the aggregation of consumer information at some level of geography. This has been a practice that has been well accepted by many industries as providing an adequate level of information. Clearly this is the method of choice that the government uses when delivering sensitive information such as census or economic information.
As we have seen, the rights of the consumer should be paramount in any decisions that we make regarding the use of individual consumer data. We as organizations, are in vanguards of privacy protection, it falls to us to ensure that the rights of each individual are adequately protected. We have also seen that through aggregation of consumer information we can still make informed business decisions, while allowing the consumer both his privacy and the ability to benefit from those decisions.
Each year for the past five years the Equifax and Louis Harris companies in consultation with Dr. Alan Westin conducted a survey to determine how consumer's perceptions about privacy of information are trending. This foregoes speculation by business, media, consumer groups and the like. The report for 1994 will be released in its full form later in November. As Mr. Flaherty mentioned you may call John Ford in our Public Affairs Department to receive a copy of this study at (404) 885-8231.
Today I would like to share some of the results from the 1994 survey. "More than four out of five (84 percent) Americans say they are concerned about threats to their personal privacy today, with just over half (51 percent) indicating that they are "very" concerned". This represents a significant spike over the previous four years. The 1994 data show that distrust of government, lack of faith in voting and concern about uses of technology are the fundamental factors driving the public's growing anxiety about privacy.
For the first time since the question was asked in 1978, a majority (53 percent) of Americans now agree with the statement: "Technology has almost gotten out of control.". Clearly there is a growing sensitivity by consumers with regard to data and technology. In summary:
Thank you.