For immediate release: October 31, 2000
Press Contact: Irene Oujo 201.996.1154

CONFERENCE TO HIGHLIGHT BOTTOM-LINE ISSUES, LESSONS OF ONGOING "PRIVACY REVOLUTION"
Privacy & American Business Holds Major Conference in D.C. on November 28-30

WASHINGTON, D.C.***NEWS ADVISORY*** What are the new emerging privacy issues that will have a real, bottom-line impact on corporate America? After the November elections, what should smart companies be doing to comply with consumers' interests and prevent class action privacy suits against them? What can corporations expect from Capitol Hill and state capitols as they take up major privacy issues in 2001?

These are some of the major questions that will be addressed during the Privacy & American Business (P&AB) annual conference, "Managing the Privacy Revolution," which will be held November 29-30, 2000 at the Washington Court Hotel in Washington, D.C. P&AB will hold a Corporate Privacy Officer (CPO) and Privacy Practitioners' Workshop on November 28, preceeding the main conference. Visit pandab.org for more information. The application for conference press credentials is available online at pandab.org/press9.html.

"The conference and workshop will teach attendees what the government is requiring and what leading companies are doing to protect consumer privacy both off and online," said Dr. Alan F. Westin, a leading privacy expert and president of Privacy & American Business. "The P&AB conference will explore the real world bottom-line implications of privacy. As such, this is a conference that no major organization with consumer privacy issues can afford to miss."

Lead speakers at P&AB's 2000 conference will include: Senator Robert Bennett (R-UT); Peter Swire, Chief Counselor to the President on Privacy; FTC Chairman Robert Pitofsky; and Jerry Berman, Executive Director of the Center for Democracy and Technology. American Express, IBM, Internet Alliance, Nationwide Insurance, Citigroup, First Data, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Persona, Verizon, and ZeroKnowledge are among the corporations that will talk about their leadership roles in privacy protection.

Sessions dedicated to the international privacy scene will focus on topics such as "How to Sail into Safe Harbor" and "How Japan is Approaching e-commerce and Privacy." Speakers focusing on Safe Harbor and its implications for multinationals are Barbara Wellbery, Department of Commerce, and Gerard de Graaf, Delegation of the EU to the U.S., both of whom were parties to the negotiations.

A unique group of sessions will examine privacy in Japan, featuring leading Japanese business, government, and academic experts, such as Shuhei Kishimoto of Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry and Dr. Masao Horibe of Chuo University. Materials enhancing these sessions include: Survey Report on Japanese Consumers and Privacy, with Comparisons to the U.S. Public, Guide to e-Commerce and Privacy Developments in Japan, and Guide to Privacy and Data Protection in Japan.

The CPO and Privacy Practitioners' Workshop will define the role and responsibilities of the newly created Corporate Privacy Officer position being institutionalized in the corporate world today. As the first major privacy meeting after the presidential election, the conference will explore how the new White House and line-up on Capitol Hill are likely to shape the Washington privacy scene in 2001-2002. As happened with tobacco and asbestos, the consumer privacy issue has sparked a class action litigation explosion. Dr. Westin will highlight the details of these cases and also address what they may mean for self-regulation. Dr. Westin and Robert Belair, co-founder of P&AB, will review the major privacy events of the year and project what can be expected in 2001-2002.

About Privacy & American Business
Privacy & American Business is an activity of the non-profit Center for Social & Legal Research, a non-partisan public policy think tank headed by Dr. Alan Westin, Columbia University Professor Emeritus and internationally recognized authority on data protection and privacy; Robert R. Belair, leading Washington-based public policy attorney and D.C. insider; and Executive Director and Editor Lorrie Sherwood. P&AB is on the cutting edge of emerging privacy and data protection issues. P&AB readers and program participants are the policy-making leaders from business, U.S. and international governments, leading industry associations, and academia.

P&AB speaks to business about privacy and data protection issues- both domestic and global- and assists them in understanding the issues and developing policies that balance their need to use personal information with the concerns of individuals whose information is being used. P&AB publishes a bi-monthly newsletter/report, conducts an Annual National Conference, commissions surveys that inform understanding of consumer privacy issues by business, directs projects to assist businesses in grasping the meaning of and addressing the rising privacy issues driven by the new technologies worldwide, and reports on useful materials and publications.

P&AB conducts special projects and is now assisting business and governments in addressing the EU Data Protection Directive and other national privacy initiatives, and leads a Model Contracts Program, a Global Privacy Project, and a Corporate Privacy Leadership Program. Additionally, P&AB is addressing the complexities of transferring HR data across national boundaries. More information about P&AB and its projects are available at two websites pandab.org and www.PrivacyExchange.org, the latter being a free global reference library and resource on privacy and data protection in the U.S. and abroad.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
David Ciauro or Lorrie Sherwood, 201.996.1154 or