A coalition of companies are set to launch a $3 million Web ad campaign 10/12/98 targeted at boosting their privacy credentials. Under the umbrella of The Privacy Partnership led by the TrustE organization, the group will run and extensive banner-ad campaign recommending Net users to read privacy statements on websites they visit. \n The major high-traffic portal sites, including AOL, Excite, Infoseek, Microsoft, Netscape, and Yahoo will initially lead the campaign. TrustE officials are targeted for a total of 150 million ad impressions next month kicking off the campaign. Another 75 companies have agreed to run the ad banners, thus raising the number of impressions to over 200 million. TrustE Executive Director Susan Scott said, "The message of this campaign is clear - The online industry cares about its consumers and is committed to educating them about their privacy rights." \n The ad campaign is the latest effort put forth by online companies to convince government, and their own consumers, that no new privacy regulations or laws are needed. Over the past year, Washington, D.C. officials have pressed online companies to implement a self-regulation plan that would lay to rest consumer fears and complaints that private information was being collected and used by Net companies. Last spring, a Federal Trade Commission surveyfound many websites collected private information from consumers without disclosing how they would use the information. \n The Privacy Partnership campaign will complement a self-regulation plan proposed in July by a coalition of net businesses called the Online Privacy Reliance. The Online Privacy Reliance is led by many of the companies that will be running the new ad campaign. In July, Privacy Alliance members backed a "seal of approval" plan where third-party authorities such as TrustE, or the Better Business Bureau would approve websites that post privacy policies. The approved sites would boast a seal graphic noting their approval. The July proposal was well received by government officials, but there is a desire to make certain that even non-Alliance members would also respect consumer privacy. \n Internet industry representatives said the new ad campaign will help reach the above goal by educating Net consumers to seek and visit sites with privacy protections. The new campaign will also educate other Net businesses that privacy is indeed an important issue. \n The banner ads will begin appearing on Oct. 12. The graphics will link to the \nTrustE website, where the organization will post information on the campaign and how to protect personal privacy online. TrustE officials are encouraging any interested website manager to download the banner graphics for free and join the Partnership campaign.
All models were at least 18 years old at the time of their performance. 18 U.S.C. 2257 Record-Keeping Requirements Compliance Statement.
