In contrast, the more extreme American commercial model (which involves seeking to protect at all costs as much ability as possible to harvest without charge, and thereafter to exploit for any purpose, private consumer information) is simply a recipe for long-term disaster in the electronic marketplace, as consumers learn more and more about how American companies are seeking to exploit them online. The most successful businesses in this new digital age will be the ones that can deliver the most value to customers, and thereby establish long-term relationships with customers that are based on genuine trust. The methodologies employed by many online businesses today are completely counterproductive from the standpoint of developing genuine trust with consumers based on a framework of open disclosure of how private information is actually used.

Consumer information will still be available to industry (at least to businesses that
customers value) under a regime of responsibility and genuine trust, but it will be available on terms that customers understand, appreciate, and deem acceptable. Private information should be available according to terms that have been freely negotiated with customers, based on full, open and honest disclosure (as opposed to being imposed on them on a "take-it-or-leave-it" basis, following disclosure in the form of misleading or deceptive website "privacy statements").

For over three years, in several online fora (including a forum maintained by
Harvard's Berkman Center on the Internet and Society), Mr. Grimm has argued that, with the proper legal framework in place, we can easily reach the objective of empowering individual consumers to protect their own privacy. Moreover, we can accomplish this task just as easily through private marketplace methods and private contracts (namely, the development of a robust insurance market) as we can through top-down legislation or regulation. Arguably, in making sure that the marketplace appropriately values the private information of customers, adequately protects it, and appropriately compensates consumers for the acquisition of such information from them, an approach that rests on an insurance marketplace and empowerment of individual customers will be much more effective over the long run than any conceivable form of government agency (i.e., FTC) regulation.

Attached to this letter (the paper version) are several printouts of discussions (in
the public domain) about privacy issues and Mr. Grimm's views on how to empower individual consumers. 

Mr. Grimm is an honors graduate of the University of Michigan Law School, and
served as a law clerk for a federal judge in Texas, as well as for the Texas Supreme Court (serving under a justice who has subsequently been elected Attorney General of Texas). He was in private practice in Washington, D.C. for three years (principally with the firm of Steptoe & Johnson, where he worked with former National Security Administration General Counsel Stewart Baker on "cyberlaw" and encryption matters), before taking a position with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Michigan.

He now runs a private law firm in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and travels around the country (and abroad) conducting courtroom litigation in specialized cases involving Internet, communication and technology issues. He is a member of and has actively participated in several American Bar Association and Michigan Bar Association sections relevant to online privacy and technology law generally. 

CyberBrief, PLC believes that Mr. Grimm meets all criteria for appointment to
this distinguished Advisory Committee for the following reasons:

1. The individual's participation would promote a balance of points of views represented and functions to be performed by the Advisory Committee.

Mr. Grimm will help present a balanced viewpoint that combines an appreciation
of the views and interests of the marketing and technology industries, with deep and broad experience representing the casualty and surety insurance industry (whose views and interests on the subject of privacy are distinct from those of marketers) for many years. Mr. Grimm is perhaps unique among technology lawyers today in the depth of his background related to insurance law and public policy.

Most importantly, Mr. Grimm is committed to protecting the rights of consumers
and empowering them to police their own rights. Foremost among the constituencies on whose behalf he is prepared to advocate is the vast constituency of individuals whose right to keep their private information private has been and continues to be abused (without fair compensation) on a daily basis by the legions of marketing professionals driving policy at today's largest online enterprises.

2. The individual has expertise in or knowledge of the issues that are the
focus of the Advisory Committee's work.

Mr. Grimm has written about and practiced Internet law in one form or another (including First Amendment issues, intellectual property issues, contracts, insurance issues, online commerce and digital signatures, and other related issues) since 1992. He first testified on the subject of online privacy to a legislative body in 1995. Since then, Mr. Grimm has continued to study and reflect upon the dilemma of online privacy and how best to cut the "Gordian knot" of current Washington debate (which is mired within the framework of "government regulation vs. industry self-regulation"). He has broad experience in this field and is eager to champion novel ideas that can help cut this "Gordian knot."

3. The individual adequately reflects the views of the relevant affected
interest(s).

 

The attached materials make clear enough what Mr. Grimm's views are on these
subjects, and how his views reflect and promote both (1) the interests and needs of individual consumers, and (2) the interests and needs of the commercial sector generally, including not only the needs of marketing organizations, but also the financial interests of the casualty and surety insurance industry. The Federal Trade Commission can decide for itself whether he can fairly and adequately represent these views on the Advisory Council.

For the reasons set forth above, we respectfully nominate Eric C. Grimm for
membership on the Advisory Committee on Online Access and Security.

Respectfully submitted,

Eric C. Grimm

cc: Elizabeth Echols, White House
John Graubert, Deputy Counsel, Federal Trade Commission