E-Commerce Firm Dashes Off Letter On Consumer Data
Daniel Kaufman, CEO of mobile shopping portal Dash.com, which promotes itself as the Web's first mobile shopping portal, has asked the chief executives of 14 other e-commerce sites to support giving consumers access to the marketing information collected about them.
"Many consumers hesitate to participate in e-Commerce opportunities because they fear they will leave a trail of personal information that's beyond their control," said Kaufman in a letter to executives at America Online, Excite@ Home Network, IBM, Microsoft, Time Warner and the Walt Disney Co., among other firms. "By providing each consumer with access to their information," he said, "Businesses can assuage this concern."
Dash.com is among the companies, including those that received the letter, that will serve on the Federal Trade Commission's Advisory Committee on Online Access and Security, which begins hearings Feb. 4, 2000 in Washington, D.C.
"By taking the initiative on consumer access, e-Commerce leaders can help the Internet industry avoid the kind of government oversight that some consumer groups and privacy advocates are calling for," the letter said.
Since its launch in November 1999, Dash.com has instituted a privacy policy providing each member with free, password-protected access to the information Dash collects about them, including the ability to delete it, the New York City-based company says.
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