WOMMA has just become engaged in an initiative concerning privacy, by providing tentative guidelines or recommendations for prudent business practices, and seeking commentary from its members.
The “WOMMA Perspective on Privacy” is set forth below:
The Word of Mouth Marketing Association (“WOMMA”) http://www.womma.org, recognizes the continued importance of protecting privacy across all marketing and communications channels. While privacy is a multi-faceted issue, WOMMA believes that transparency and choice are at the heart of establishing and sustaining the meaningful connection between brands and consumers.
To assist its members and the word of mouth/social media marketing industry, WOMMA seeks to commence a dialogue by providing preliminary draft recommendations. These recommendations, relating to the business practices of brands and their partners, are drafted as aspirational core principles designed to incorporate privacy protections into a company’s culture in a meaningful way. We look forward to receiving your feedback.
I. Transparency, Openness, and Honesty:
Brands should be open and honest about Personally Identifiable Information (“PII”) that they are collecting, using and sharing from consumers. Brands should communicate with consumers in a clear and conspicuous manner, and in a language that is understandable to the reasonable consumer or intended audience.
II. Limiting Use:
Brands should use PII collected from or about consumers for the purposes that they have clearly communicated.
III. Relevance and Necessity:
Brands should collect PII that is relevant and necessary to accomplish the specified purposes.
IV. Retention:
Brands should not retain PII for longer than necessary to fulfill the specified purposes or to otherwise meet legal requirements.
V. Consumer Participation:
Brands should seek to provide mechanisms for appropriate consumer review, access, and correction of PII that they maintain, to the extent practicable.
VI. Data Quality and Integrity:
Brands should strive to keep PII about consumers accurate and up-to-date.
VII. Security:
Brands should employ measures to protect PII based on the sensitivity of the information, the nature of the brand’s business, the potential of risks the brand faces, and the reasonable protections available to the brand. Brands should require that business partners who collect or use such PII on the brand’s behalf also adopt appropriate security measures.
VIII. Accountability and Monitoring:
Brands should be accountable for complying with these principles, by providing consumers with a readily accessible means to express concerns or complaints regarding adherence to these principles, and brands should respond to such concerns or complaints appropriately.
In addition, WOMMA has released a Q&A to its members concerning the initiative and request for comments, which is set forth below:
Q: What is the purpose of the WOMMA Perspective on Privacy?
A: Privacy is a key concern of regulators, legislators, policy makers, trade associations as well as consumer groups —each one e weighing in on the debate. WOMMA wants to be a part of that conversation as the issues being discussed impact the ways in which members do business. Specifically, the principles set forth in the WOMMA Perspective are designed to educate our members about the ways in which privacy impacts a company’s core business practices as well as its marketing efforts. WOMMA wants to start a conversation as to what type of self-regulatory guidelines are appropriate and necessary.
Q: How did WOMMA come up with the principles or framework?
A: WOMMA’s Legal Affairs Committee initially created a framework that was then reviewed by the legal staffs of some brand members. The version was then submitted to the Board for its review and feedback, which included review by some of their legal staffs as well.
Q: Is WOMMA mandating guidelines for privacy the way it did for disclosures in the Ethics Code?
A: No. The current draft is aspirational, using the word “should” not “shall” in the draft. In addition, at this stage, WOMMA is merely seeking comments and feedback from its members as to the necessity of such guidelines, and, if so, what types of principles should be provided.
Q: Why is privacy important to advertisers, marketers and communicators?
A: Marketers sell products and services, and seek to create loyal customers who will share their enthusiasm for those products or services. During that “conversation” between the advertiser and customer, sensitive information can be transmitted, whether financial or personal. It is the sensitivity of that information that creates concerns about privacy. As noted in the Perspective on Privacy, WOMMA believes that transparency and choice are at the heart of establishing and sustaining the meaningful connection between companies and their customers.
Q: Should I share this with others in my organization or company?
A: Yes. Gaining feedback from not only marketers, but customer service representatives as well as lawyers would be very valuable. Privacy issues cut across many dimensions of a company’s business, and input from as many stakeholders as possible in an organization is truly necessary.
Q: How do I provide comments on the Initiative?
A: Feedback should be posted directly to the Living Ethics Blog http://womma.org/ethicsreview/ and please pass it along to others and encourage industry-wide participation in the conversation. Comments should be sent by September 30, 2011.
The topic of privacy is obviously an important issue for consumers as well as regulators and legislators, and WOMMA is excited to become involved in the conversation. We look forward to receiving feedback concerning this initiative and guidelines. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Many thanks for your interest,
Tony DiResta
adiresta@winston.com
(202) 282-5782