his was not a good summer for consumer privacy protection, unless you're a mass marketer participating in the lucrative business of buying and selling personal information for the purpose of zeroing in on targeted audiences.

Efforts by consumer advocates in California to impose tough restrictions on the sharing and selling of personal financial information were defeated in the State Assembly on August 31, 2002. In July, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued rules that will allow telephone companies to sell customer records, thus favoring businesses, not consumers. In California, supporters of the privacy initiative blamed strong opposition from financial institutions and business-friendly politicians, who say the bill would hurt the state's economy, for its second defeat in two years. The measure would have allowed Californians to block the trade and sale of their private information by insurance companies, banks and brokerage firms.

Financial institutions outspent consumer advocates $5.4 million to $600,000 lobbying against the bill this session, according to the group Common Cause.

Taking things a step further, the FCC said it was forced to adopt new regulations based on a U.S. Court of Appeals ruling on the First Amendment rights of businesses to sell their customers' records. Mass marketers soon could be able to buy information from local, long-distance and cellular companies about whom the consumers call, the times and lengths of those calls and, in the near future, the locations from which cell phone users make calls.

Communications experts and privacy advocates say the complex wording of the legalese in disclosure rules makes it impossible for consumers to decipher what their rights are in keeping their information private.

Supporters of the privacy bill in California, including the bill's author, Sen. Jackie Speier (D-San Mateo), say they are not giving up and hope to put it up for the state's voters to decide as early as March 2004.