Press Release
2 University Plaza, Suite 414
Hackensack, NJ 07601
Phone: 201-996-1154 FAX: 201-996-1883
Press Contact:
Irene Oujo (201) 996-1154
ioujo@pandab.org
For immediate release
GOVERNMENT ACCESS TO CONSUMER INFORMATION HELD BY BUSINESS A FOCUS AT P&ABS NATIONAL CONFERENCE
Attendees to receive P&ABs Privacy Officers Guide to Homeland Security Information Requirements as aid.
Hackensack, NJ// February 27, 2003 Admiral James Loy, Undersecretary for Security, Department of Transportation, in a rare public appearance, will keynote a series of sessions focused on controversial government demands on business for access to consumer transaction information, and plans to expand passenger prescreening systems (CAPPS II) at Privacy & American Business Ninth Annual National Conference & Workshop, slated for March 12-14 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C.
"As privacy advocates and civil liberties groups gear up to challenge new government initiatives to access consumer information in business files, companies are seeking guidance on how to support legitimate government needs, but also protect legitimate privacy interests," said Dr. Alan Westin, President & Publisher, P&AB. "We will provide an exchange of concerns and offer guidance in this major area of post 9/11 business data operations."
Government data mining, proposed individual terrorism scores and consumers ability to challenge those scores, as well as the filtering of sensitive personal information about people flying in and around the U.S. will be followed by keynote presentations from a business leader, Jennifer Barrett, CPO, Acxiom, and a leading civil liberties expert, Jerry Berman, President, Center for Democracy & Technology.
"This marks an important change in the focus of P&ABs Annual National Conference, reflecting deep concern over how to protect homeland security while not surrendering the privacy boundaries that businesses have come to understand and accept in handling their customer personal data," said Robert Belair, P&AB Vice President and Partner, Oldaker, Biden & Belair.
Following Admiral Loys presentation will be a session on the use of public databases for background checks and financial services authentication. Panelists include Bill Burmeister, General Counsel and Privacy Officer for Regulatory Datacorp, whose company provides financial services firms with data to comply with PATRIOT Act customer verification requirements, and Privacy Times Editor and Publisher Evan Hendricks who, as an advocate, has reservations about such databases and how they will be used.
Top Speakers
Admiral Loy joins a roster of the new privacy players and top P&AB Conference speakers from business and government. These include California State Senator Jackie Speier, the author of a privacy bill that would require financial services companies to seek explicit consumer permission (opt-in) before certain types of information sharing and FTC Chairman Tim Muris, this years recipient of P&ABs Distinguished Privacy Leadership Award. Other key speakers include Sen. Joseph Biden (D-DE), Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Former House Majority Leader "Dick" Armey (R-TX), currently a Senior Policy Analyst with Piper Rudnick LLP, and a host of working privacy officers and managers with actual case studies.
Special Privacy Officer Guide to Homeland Security
As a supplement to the special sessions on balancing privacy and security, each attendee will receive P&ABs Guide to Homeland Security Information Requirements to aid understanding of compliance issues in new security legislation where customer trust is at stake. This Guide examines new anti-terror laws and how they are being administered. It also summarizes the concerns of civil liberties and consumer advocates about the scope of these demands on business, and the privacy safeguards that should be put in place. Examples of how companies are complying with government investigative demands are included, as well as a discussion of government requests for real-time direct access to corporate databases versus requests for specific individual information.
Conference attendees will also receive P&ABs Consumer Privacy Litigation Annual Report, Annual Consumer Privacy Survey Report and Analysis, and the Annual States Round Up and Analysis. Another important publication provided will be a Guide to P&ABs Privacy Policy Database which describes how this unique database was created, how to use it, and how P&AB experts developed the coding for the policies. Attendees will also receive the latest privacy employment opportunities from P-JOBs, P&ABs online privacy job board available at www.pjobs.org.
Register Today
Draft program and registration information are available at pandab.org. For more Conference and hotel information, visit pandab.org or contact Olga Garey at (201) 996-1154 or info@pandab.org.
Members of the working press are invited to attend March 13-14 and may contact Irene Oujo at ioujo@pandab.org for a press registration form.
About Privacy & American Business
Privacy & American Business, (pandab.org & www.PrivacyExchange.org), is an activity of the Center for Social & Legal Research, a non-profit, non-partisan public policy think tank exploring U.S. and global issues of consumer and employee privacy and data protection since its launch in 1993.
Always on the cutting edge, P&AB was the first to chart and analyze for business the rise of privacy from a second-tier concern to a front-burner issue and to provide opportunities in programs and meetings to assist businesses in understanding the privacy environment as it is evolving. P&AB, a pioneer in recognizing the rise of the corporate privacy officer (CPO), was the first to open its CPO Program in 1999.
The Center and all its activities are led by Dr. Alan Westin, President and Publisher of P&AB; Robert Belair, Partner at Oldaker, Biden & Belair and P&ABs Vice President; and Lorrie Sherwood, P&ABs Executive Director.
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