There is some really interesting maneuvering going on around the DC these days as various vendors are pitching enhanced voter file data sets.
While most of America is appalled at the amount of private information being filtered and sifted by the political parties the beltway are "hooked" on data. Thankfully, there are some solutions in the works.
S. 116 – Privacy Act of 2005 – Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA Latest Update: S. 116 was introduced on Jan. 24 by Sen. Feinstein and was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. Summary: S. 116 prohibits the sale and disclosure of personally identifiable information by a commercial entity to a non-affiliated third party unless prescribed procedures for notice and opportunity to restrict such disclosure have been followed. The bill grants the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) enforcement authority. S. 166 also amends Federal criminal law to prohibit the display, sale, or purchase of social security numbers (SSNs) without the affirmatively expressed consent of the individual. This legislation prohibits the use of SSNs on checks issued for payment by governmental agencies and driver's licenses or motor vehicle registrations. It prohibits a commercial entity from requiring disclosure of an individual's SSN in order to obtain goods or services, and it establishes criminal and civil monetary penalties for misuse of an SSN.
The bill would revolutionize the way we think about data management t in the nonprofit, issue and campaign sectors. We would need to move strategy away from reliance on centralized data management strategy and begin to look at empowering local networks more effectively. Direct mail would be blinded of consumer data and all of us would be able to sleep easier knowing that the political machines are not tracking our every move and violating our privacy.
This bill should pass and I predict something like it will pass when some laptop with 10,000,000 identities shows up stolen and the data gets abused to piss off enough voters to clamor for change. What would this bill do to your strategy? If you can not imagine a world without centralized control of data then your entire operation is must be very centralized and dependent on incredible amount of message control and direct marketing. If you have a product or campaign that perpetuates itself than flying data blind is no big deal.
