Pubdate: 28 Feb 1999 Source: Oakland Tribune (CA) Copyright: 1999 MediaNews Group, Inc. and ANG Newspapers Contact: 66 Jack London Sq., Oakland, CA 94607 Website: http://www.newschoice.com/newspapers/alameda/tribune/ Author: David Ignatius MINDING EVERYONE ELSE'S BUSINESS AMONG the mistakes the Republicans made in their push for impeachment, surely, was misjudging the American public's passion for privacy. Embedded in our national consciousness, along with "Don't Tread on Me!" is the phrase "It's none of your damn business!" This intense, sometimes irrational commitment to privacy spans the political spectrum, from NRA conservatives to pro-choice liberals. And it may be the best explanation for the breadth of public support for President Clinton during these past months, in the face of overwhelming evidence of his misdeeds. Ordinary folks didn't like his conduct, but they also seem to have felt: Get off his back! American business may be making a similar error in misunderstanding the depth and power of America's demand for privacy. The latest example of a big, smart company to make this mistake is computer chip maker Intel. The company was forced last month to revise a planned Pentium III chip when consumers protested a feature that would give each chip a precise signature, allowing online retailers, law enforcement or anyone else with the technology to identify who sent a particular e-mail message or visited a particular Web site. Maintaining privacy in the electronic age is like trying to hold back the tide. One of the most powerful applications of digital technology is its ability to store, retrieve and transmit vast amounts of information. The tools are so pervasive now -- from scanners in supermarkets to satellite navigation systems that can track every move of your car -- that we take them almost for granted. And for business, these wondrous tools help answer what has been the essential question of commerce since the first cave man opened the first lemonade stand: Namely, what do people want to buy? Rather than having to guess at the answer, it's now possible to know with some certainty -- not simply by studying broad trends of demographic groups, but by recording and analyzing the actual purchases of each consumer. Amazon.com, for example, knows precisely what books I bought last year, and with its computer models it can predict what I might like to read next -- and make suggestions. The potential for this sort of "data mining," as it's known, is nearly endless. Safeway can learn what I eat, United Airlines where I travel. For business, these are heaven-sent marketing tools. The problem is, most Americans are horrified at the notion that corporations are gathering such intimate data about their lives. The leading journalistic chronicler of privacy in the electronic age is my colleague Robert O'Harrow Jr. His stories in The Washington Post on this subject have created an amazing storm of public reaction. A year ago, O'Harrow disclosed that two big Washington-area retailers -- Giant Food Inc. and CVS Corp. -- were sending pharmacy data to a company called Elensys Inc., which used that information to send letters to customers touting new products or reminding them to refill prescriptions. This was obviously good marketing, and the retailers thought it would also be good for their customers' health. But after a torrent of complaints from angry consumers, Giant and CVS halted the practice. The federal government is making similar blunders. Zealous regulators at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., for example, wanted to enlist banks in their war on money laundering -- by forcing them to snoop on their customers. But after more than 23,000 people complained about this so-called "Know Your Customer" rule, the FDIC is reconsidering the plan. And let's not even get into the National Security Agency's never-ending efforts to crack codes. I have never entirely understood the privacy mania. Why shouldn't the NSA be able to crack our electronic messages if it will help them catch the bad guys? Similarly, I'm not all that upset if Amazon.com wants to mine my data and recommend a book or two. But it's evident that most Americans take a different view. They don't like people meddling with their private lives, period. That's part of what it means to be an American. Indeed, you can make an argument that the enduring American ideology is this raw, frontier-rooted libertarianism. Technology will keep pushing business to make clever use of data. But I suspect that the most profitable businesses will be the ones that understand America's love affair with privacy, and do their best to level with their customers. David Ignatius writes for The Washington Post. - --- MAP posted-by: Mike Gogulski