[link|http://news.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/11/09/BUGME2SG5L1.DTL&type=business|For data processing].
\r\n\r\nDavid Lazarus, holding up the SF Chronicle all on his lonesome:
\r\n\r\n\r\nA group of East Coast info-tech professionals says that everyone's entitled to his own opinion on the matter, but companies doing the outsourcing should at least be required to tell consumers that personal information is heading overseas.
\r\n\r\nAs such, these techies -- members of a grassroots organization called the Programmer's Guild, with about 1,000 members nationwide -- have drafted an "Information Technology Disclosure Act" that they say should serve as a model for federal legislation.
\r\n\r\n"We're not telling companies where they can or can't go," said John DeMartinis, a New Jersey code jockey who was the disclosure act's main author. "We're just saying that they have to tell people about it."
\r\n\r\nHe's got a point. One important aspect of the outsourcing trend is that practitioners frequently take elaborate steps to keep their exporting of work overseas a secret.
\r\n\r\nNondisclosure and confidentiality agreements are routine among outsourcers and their contractors abroad. Most companies in fact refuse to even comment on such activities, citing the need to protect proprietary information.
\r\n\r\nThis practice seems unsavory in part because such companies treat it as something shameful. In their efforts to avoid embarrassing questions and bad press, these firms have all but invited increased scrutiny of their actions.
\r\n\r\nWhat, consumers rightfully ask, do they have to hide?
\r\n\r\nDeMartinis' proposed Information Technology Disclosure Act seeks to put such questions to rest by mandating that customers be informed if any of their personal data is sent abroad. It also would require that:
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\r\n\r\n- Consumers be given the right to opt out from having personal information -- such as their name, address or Social Security number -- go to other countries;
\r\n\r\n- A "serviced in" label be affixed to every statement or document processed overseas, just as manufactured goods must state a country of origin;
\r\n\r\n- Overseas customer-service workers, who often take pains to mask their location, identify their whereabouts at the outset of any conversation;
\r\n\r\n- Calls be rerouted to domestic facilities if the consumer so chooses.
\r\nThe disclosure act says such steps are intended to "help ensure that consumers get the information they need in order to exercise choice, get redress or remedy, and protect the security and safety of their personal information."
\r\n\r\n...
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