Statement by FTC Commissioner Orson Swindle. Re: online privacy. Event: Heritage Foundation forum titled "Will Government Strangle the New Economy?" Date: June 27, 2000. Editor's Notes:  • Commissioner Swindle was not a scheduled speaker at the event. He was a member of the audience. The panel moderator asked him if he had any comments. He did.  • Tech Law Journal transcribed from its audio recording of the event.

On this matter of going to the Hill, and getting leadership on the Hill. I would contend that that is probably part of the problem. This issue of privacy, which I have said for about a year and a half, is going to be the hot topic of the summer. And it will be demagogued beyond anything you have ever seen. And that is what is going on now.

We have got an enormous propaganda battle going. And the private sector is losing that battle. Privacy is something that you can you can stir up emotions instantly. When surveys are done, "Are you concerned about your privacy?" And it has all come down -- the Commission -- you know -- several weeks ago the Commission reversed course, and decided "Well, it's time to regulate the Internet." With two years running, we have said, "No, it is not time. Be patient." You know, first, do no harm, or as I would say it down in South Georgia, "Look before you leap, damnit. You know, you could mess up."

But, the privacy advocates and those who want to regulate are saying, "Well, you know, God, two years ago, 70% of the people said they were concerned about their privacy. And last year it was 83%. And this year it is over 90%." And my question is, "What in hell is wrong with the other 10%?" I mean, aren't you all concerned. Somebody calls you up on the phone and, "Are you concerned about your privacy?" I think the answer to that is "yes", unless you are out on Mars somewhere.

But here is my pitch. We don't need leadership in Congress. We need leadership in industry.

The reason we are loosing this battle -- and I would almost bet you that in the next Congress there will be some privacy regulation. Count on it. And in my mind it is going to be the fault of industry. Not because they did not make good progress. They have made pretty darn good progress over the last several years. We have gone to where we had 14% of Internet sites posting some formal disclosure, notice that they collect information. And at least talking about it. Over 90%, or right at 90%, when you take the aggregate of the big sample that we did.

But industry is not selling the benefits of this amazing technology that we have got. You know, I mentioned some of the, where the government can be efficient. Yes, government can be, why can't government be efficient by the use of the Internet. Everybody else can. And certainly, if it takes me five minutes to get a new drivers license over the Internet, that is a hell of a lot better than me going down and standing in line down there in Alexandria or Arlington, you know, for two hours, trying to do it.

That is obvious. But, there are so many benefits. In the forum before the Federalist Society a couple of days ago in Boston, and one of the gentlemen talking there, who is from the Reagan administration, where all those are alumni, and he made the comment about mutual funds. "You know, years ago, we could not have mutual funds, investments the way we have today, because we have aggregated exchange information. It is all done through technology. It used to cost two weeks to set up a mutual fund account. And it would cost, roughly, average, it was about $125. Today you can do it for pennies in a matter of a few minutes."

Industry is not telling the story well enough. It is easy to tell about the bad things, because the emotion is so high. And in politics, we know the emotion carries most elections, not logic or sound reasoning, or anything else. So, I think the industry has got to step up to the plate. They have got to lead. They have got to show the way. They have got to tell people the marvelous benefits from all this technology.

And they have also got to convince customers they care about them. I care about your privacy. I don't want you to be abused. That has to become a part of the corporate culture. And it needs to become a part of the corporate goals that board of directors set in the boardrooms, and at annual meetings where they say our goal is to get 10% return on investment this year, and the third thing down the list is we are going to ensure our consumers, our customers, that we care about their privacy, and all these other things.

We have just seen the beginning of the battle. But it won't go away.