Good morning to all of you and welcome to the Department of Commerce or, as some of us hope it will be called in the next century, the Department of e-Commerce.

Vice President Gore asked the Chairman and I to look into the issue of profiling for our government. The reason is, as we all know, in this e-world of ours every time there is a new technology, along with all the good it may bring, consumers also want to know how it may affect their privacy. We saw that once again last week. RealNetworks apologized and changed its practices after the New York Times reported it was gathering users' listening habits without notifying them.

Obviously, Americans want to know what is happening online behind their screens when all these targeted ads pop up in front of them. The ads themselves obviously can be good.

As a consumer, if I'm online and one site has figured out that I like golf courses, possibly in or around Chicago, and I get this banner ad about a great golf weekend, that is good. But if someone has been sneaking around me, following every click I make at every site, and they share this information behind my back without my knowing it, then I, I believe like most consumers, would be rather unhappy.

The reason people have the gut reaction they do to profiling is that they don't know what is being collected about them, they don't have choices, and this is not good for developing consumer confidence.

As Commerce Secretary, I can tell you that we are holding this workshop to find the facts, to see the great things that profiling can do to help consumers and companies, and companies target their online advertising and their marketing.

We very much appreciate the efforts of all of you to be here to help educate all of us. Obviously, we will all be wrestling with some extremely difficult issues. I see this as an opportunity to learn about the technology that is behind profiling. I see this as an opportunity for privacy advocates to help raise awareness about these issues which are so important to the consumers. And I see this as a chance to show us why industry leadership will be better off than Washington intervention.

In 1997, when the Internet had about one-third as many people as are connected today, the President and Vice President put forward our government's first policy and just about any government in the world's policy on e-commerce. They wanted the privacy sector to lead and government not to do anything that would mess up the Internet.

In our opinion, this has worked. The Chairman and I have challenged the industry to lead on privacy, and we were taken very seriously. The number of web sites with privacy policies has greatly increased. Many of the largest advertisers only place ads on web sites that contain privacy policies. And the number of companies that are signing up for seal programs, like TRUSTe and BBB Online, continues to grow quickly. Obviously, we all hope the same happens here.

I know some of you have been working on a new initiative and from what we all hear you are definitely on the right track, and you may have some announcements later on today. We all look forward to hearing them.

The fact is, as clever as industry has been to create profiling technology, it has to be as clever in figuring out how to respect consumers' choices. This morning Al Westin will show in a survey the majority of Americans are happy about receiving tailored ads. That obviously will come as no surprise to any of us. Americans are the greatest shoppers the world has ever seen, and if someone has a bargain these shoppers definitely want to hear about it.

But consumers also want to know what is going on inside their computers. It is not Big Brother that the consumers fear any more and it is not even big businesses that they fear. They fear businesses that they have never heard of having information about them and using it for purposes that they don't even understand.

If a web firm fails to protect consumers' privacy, if they fail to disclose, if they fail to give consumers choice, I guarantee you that governments will be forced to react. Because this technology knows no borders, it is far better for the market to respond than for governments, not only in this country but around the world, to be taking unilateral action.

Let me draw a picture about how concerned the American people are about privacy. This month we will launch an ad campaign for the 2000 census. By mandate of the Constitution, we have conducted a census every ten years since George Washington was President. But for the very first time, we need to run paid ads becausefewer and fewer people are willing to fill out the survey. If they do not mail it in, we literally have to hire an army to knock on every home, every residence in America, to get the information required by the Constitution.

The big reason people are hesitant about the census is confidentiality and it is privacy. Americans are afraid that we will do something with the information, even though by law we cannot share this information that is personally identifiable with any government agency.

The point is -- and I will end on this -- privacy is a very big deal for the American public. We see it as essential for our freedom. But the benefits of the Internet and profiling are enormous benefits for companies. They can do a better job of offering the right products to the right customers. They can do it faster and they can do it cheaper.

No question, knowing their customer is extremely important to every company in America, but so is listening to your customers. And if they are telling you that they want more information about profiling and more choices, you need to meet those needs. If you do, we will have the trillion dollar e-economy that will keep America the envy of the world.

So I hope and I know that positive things will come out of this workshop, and then we can report to the American people that their privacy will be protected. Once again, I thank you for joining us at this workshop, and good luck to all of you today.