"Information Flows: The Costs and Benefits to Consumers and Businesses of the Collection and Use of Consumer Information,"

The Federal Trade Commission will host a workshop, "Information Flows: The Costs and Benefits to Consumers and Businesses of the Collection and Use of Consumer Information," on Wednesday, June 18, 2003 from 8:30 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. EDT in the FTC Conference Center at 601 New Jersey Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC. The workshop will feature prominent business leaders, as well as representatives of consumer groups and members of the academic community.

Following opening remarks by FTC Chairman Timothy J. Muris, the workshop will begin with a roundtable discussion, moderated by Chairman Muris, that will feature five business executives:

• Charles D. Morgan, Company Leader, Acxiom Corp.;
• John Thompson, Chairman and C.E.O., Symantec Corp.;
• Peter Kight, Chairman and C.E.O., CheckFree Corp.;
• Ken Seiff, C.E.O., Bluefly, Inc.; and
• Tom Seddon, Senior Vice-President, InterContinental Hotels Group.

The next segment of the workshop will feature remarks by FTC Commissioner Orson Swindle, followed by a panel on the costs and benefits of the collection and use of consumer information for credit transactions. The panelists include: Fred H. Cate, Distinguished Professor of Law, Indiana University; Andrea Fike, Vice-President and General Counsel, Fair Isaac Corp.; Laura DeSoto, Senior Vice-President, Experian Credit Services; Peter McCorkell, Senior Counsel, Wells Fargo and Co.; William B. Gossett, President, Islands Community Bank, N.A.; Evan Hendricks, Editor and Publisher, Privacy Times; and Travis Plunkett, Legislative Director, Consumer Federation of America.

The afternoon session will begin with remarks by FTC Commissioner Mozelle Thompson, followed by a panel exploring the costs and benefits of the collection and use of consumer information for customer relationship management and targeted marketing. The panel features: Martin Abrams, Executive Director, Center for Information Policy Leadership; Dave Schrader, Lead Strategist and Marketing Director, Teradata; Nelle M. Schantz, Program Director for CRM Solutions, SAS Institute; Sandy Hughes, Global Privacy Executive, Procter and Gamble Co.; Richard Savard, Senior Vice President, Marketing Services, FACS Group; Larry Ponemon, Chairman, Ponemon Institute; and Beth Givens, Director, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.

The final portion of the workshop will commence with remarks by FTC Commissioner Thomas Leary, followed by a panel on the methodologies for identifying and measuring the costs and benefits for businesses and consumers of the collection and use of consumer information. It will feature: Michael Turner, President and Senior Scholar, Information Policy Institute; Michael Staten, Director, Credit Research Center, Georgetown University; Robert Hunt, Economist, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia; Solveig Singleton, Senior Policy Analyst, Competitive Enterprise Institute; and Peter P. Swire, Professor of Law, Ohio State University.

The workshop will conclude with remarks by Wayne Abernathy, Assistant Secretary for FinancialInstitutions, Department of the Treasury, who will discuss the use of consumer information in the fight against identity theft.

Detailed copies of the agenda, showing panel times and participants, is available at www.ftc.gov/bcp/workshops/infoflows/030618agenda.html and also from the FTC's Consumer Response Center, Room 130, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20850. The FTC works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices in the marketplace and to provide information to help consumers spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint, or to get free information on any of 150 consumer topics, call toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357), or use the complaint at http://www.ftc.gov.The FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft, and other fraud-related complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to hundreds of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad.