Comments of the American Marketing Association Concerning Data Base Workshop -P974806

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April 15, 1997

Toby Milgrom Levin,
Attorney
Division of Advertising Practices
Bureau of Consumer Protection
Federal Trade Commission
Washington DC 20580

Dear Ms. Levin,

Per our telephone conversation of yesterday morning, the American Marketing Association would like to participate in the Public Workshop on Consumer Information Privacy (June 10-13, 1997).

At this time we are not providing comments for any of the three sessions. AMA has initiated a survey of research presented at AMA conferences, published in AMA proceedings and periodicals as well as information developed through AMA Special Interest Groups. We would like to provide comments as a supplemental document prior to the workshop prior to May 15th if this would be acceptable.

It is our hope that by providing quantitative and qualitative information pertaining to the specific questions raised in the notice that AMA and its members can positively impact the workshop results. An example of this is a paper presented at the 1996 AMA Summer Marketing Educators' Conference entitled: Electronic Bulletin Boards: New Form of Consumer Complaint Behavior. This paper provides a concrete example of a methodology and use of information obtained from consumers in an online environment.

AMA would like to request participation in:

Data Base Workshop -- Request to Participate, P974806
Consumer Privacy 1997 -- Request to Participate P954807 (Sessions Two and Three)

I am also sending a separate proposal regarding the possibility of cybercasting (audio) the workshop on the internet.

Sincerely,

Michael Hammer
Michael Hammer,
Director of Electronic Communications

cc: L. Girolarni