USD Magazine, Summer-Fall 1993

hough the PRC does not actively resolve privacy prob– lems or complaints, it helps by educating the public on the issues, identifying legislation

develop an in-house resource guide as well as a packet of privacy rights fact sheets for consumers on such topics as credit reports, Social Security numbers, telemarketing, employee monitoring, medical information and junk mail. In November, the PRC set up a toll– free hotline for Californians with ques– tions and specific problems. The hotline was wildly successful from the first day-logging as many as two to three calls per minute at first-and has received 8,000 calls since. The rate has settled to an average of 300 to 500 calls per month, except for spikes of activity following media coverage. Though the calls are becoming more diverse now, with more questions on workplace priva– cy, medical privacy and more, Givens says the reigning topic is still the combi– nation of junk mail and telemarketing. In May, the PRC opened a computer bulletin board on which information about pending state or federal bills con– cerning privacy rights is updated weekly. As research associate for the PRC, Claudia Terrazas '88 (J.D.) tracks the latest amendments as well as where each bill stands in the approval process. The bulletin board currently contains sum– maries for 87 state bills and 40 federal bills covering such issues as stalking, telemarketing, medical records and cred– it. Through the bulletin board, computer users also have access to the PRC fact sheets. In the first two months of opera– tion, Givens estimates that the bulletin board had 200 to 300 users.

that applies to the issue at hand, directing the public to the existing sources that can help and forging new avenues for the public to pursue. By forging one new avenue, the PRC staff was able to address an issue that came up in about one of every six calls– people who had problems clearing mis– takes in their credit reports. Most often, the callers had credit reports that con– tained damaging information from people with similar names. The bad information was preventing them from getting loans approved, but they would get trapped in voice-mail limbo when they called the credit bureaus. The PRC staff responded by finding "insiders" at each of the three credit bureaus-TRW, Equifax and Trans– Union-contacts whose job at the bureaus is handling problem calls. Now, when a person with a credit problem calls the hotline, the staff can give the caller a name and phone number at each of the credit bureaus. "We've done a hundred or more such referrals," Givens says. "Not one has called back to say it was the wrong direction." In the area of credit, at least, you can usually see the problem and address it. More often, the problem is nebulous. You are simply aware that your junk mail is multiplying at a geometric rate, for example, and you wish it would stop. "[Direct marketing] is one area where people feel out of control most of the time," Givens says. "They say, 'Why is this deluge of mail coming? Why does my phone ring every night at 7 p.m., and it's somebody trying to sell me some– thing?"' The PRC fact sheets help educate the public on how our personal information is "captured" and then shared or sold. One popular way to get our fingerprint, so to speak, is through "800" or "900" phone numbers. In a notorious example,

Protecting your privacy: Claudia Terrazas [left) and Beth Givens.

a drug company established an 800 number that anyone could call and, by punching in your zip code, find out the pollen count of your city that day. Through a sophisticated system called Automatic Number Identification (ANI), the drug company recorded the phone number of everyone who called and matched that list against a huge database that contains names, addresses and phone numbers. They then sent an advertisement to everyone on the list about their new allergy drug. "It's very creative marketing," Givens says. "But it's also very decep– tive. Talk about a 100-percent hit rate." That same technology is used to speed customer service at mail-order companies. When you call your favorite mail-order company, your record is on the representative's computer screen before he or she even answers the phone. After you dial, your telephone number information travels through the line, triggering a connection with the company's computer system, which then retrieves your record and sends it to the representative's screen-all before the phone rings. American Express repre– sentatives used to alarm customers by using their name when they answered the phone, Givens says. "They now pre– tend they don't know who it is, but they really do." "We get a lot of calls from people who are pretty upset about ANI," Ter– razas says. "They assume when they are calling 800 or 900 numbers that their calls will be private. They don't know that they sometimes end up on telemar– keting lists."