http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,27798,00.html
Service guards customer data
Randy Weston
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Big Blue is jumping into the direct marketing game, as a consultant not a
marketer.
IBM is launching today a new consulting service to help companies develop,
implement, and enforce internal policies regarding how they gather
information on their consumers and what to do with the information once
its gathered.
"Two things are causing this to happen now," explained Neal Isford, vice
president of e-business services at IBM's global services unit. "One is we
are finding e-commerce, that is customers buying and selling services over
the Internet, is exploding. And those companies that are most successful
are increasingly using personal information about their consumers to make
their businesses more successful."
The other issue is that the European Union passed legislation that goes
into effect October 24 requiring any company doing business with consumers
in its member states most be able to prove they are handling consumer
information according to EU law.
"There's a long history in the European community regarding the way
personal information is handled, especially in the 1940s. So there is a
large human rights issue that caused the legislation there," said Cal
Slemp, who heads up IBM's security division within global services. "The
legislation deals with the transmission and handling of personal
information. The EU directive says if you do not prove you are handling
the information in a responsible way [which is defined in the law] then
the EU will not allow personal information to be moved in or out of its
member states."
So, in steps IBM with its new consulting service to help businesses set up
policies and procedures for complying with European law and easing U.S.
consumer's fears about putting personal information on the Internet.
IBM is calling on the Privacy Consulting Group for help with the service.
The group is a research and consultancy organization that specializes in
privacy issues.
The service is initially being offered for U.S. companies and is to be
part of IBM's larger e-commerce security services.
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Received on Fri Oct 23 08:38:28 1998