The Data-Mining Industry Kicks Off a Public Relations Campaign

The Direct Marketing Association, a trade group in Manhattan, introduced a $1 million public relations campaign on Monday morning with a lofty title: the “Data-Driven Marketing Institute.”

The purpose of the effort is to buff the image and forestall regulation of the consumer data-mining industry. This industry consists of business-to-business companies, known as data brokers, that collect, share, analyze and sell information about consumers' online and off-line behaviors in order to tailor marketing pitches to them.

According to a statement, the trade group intends to promote such targeted marketing to lawmakers and the public “with the goal of preventing needless regulation or enforcement that could severely hamper consumer marketing and stifle innovation” as well as “tamping down unfavorable media attention.” As part of the campaign, the group plans to finance academic research into the industry's economic impact, said Linda A. Woolley, the actin g chief executive of the Direct Marketing Association.

The group planned to announce the campaign during its annual conference in Las Vegas. It comes as legislators in both the United States House and the Senate have opened investigations into the practices of leading data brokers. Separately, the Federal Trade Commission is also investigating certain firms and has called on the industry to increase transparency. Some legislators, regulators and privacy advocates have said they are worried that unregulated collection of marketing data about people's personal, health and or financial concerns had the potential to result in unfair pricing or inferior service for some consumers.

Ms. Woolley said the industry's public relations effort was intended to counteract those concerns.

“We want to set the record straight on what we think has been a lot of mischaracterization of what we do and to explain the benefits of data-driven marketing to consumers,” Ms. Woolle y said.

One issue the campaign is not designed to address, however, is a recommendation from the F.T.C. earlier this year that the industry set up a public Web portal where consumers could learn about the practices of data brokers and about consumer choices for accessing or deleting information collected about them. Ms. Woolley said so many different types of companies collected or used consumer data for marketing purposes that a public Web portal would be unfeasible.

Still, when consumers learn that third-party companies may collect information about their purchasing records and tastes, at least some people say they would like to be able to see the marketing records data brokers hold about them and have some control over them, said Chuck Teller, the founder of Catalog Choice, a company that helps consumers limit the catalogs, coupons and other direct-mail pitches they receive.

About 67 percent of people who answered a recent e-mail questionnaire sent out b y his company said they felt it was very important for them to be able to see the information that data brokers collected about them, while about 78 percent said they felt it was very important to be able to opt out of the distribution and sale of information about them, Mr. Teller said.

“It's pretty clear that consumers want to opt out of the use of their data by companies they don't do business with,” Mr. Teller said.