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Mr.
Chairman and members of the subcommittee, my name is Jacqueline Hourigan, and I
am the Director of Data Policies for the General Motors Corporation.
I welcome the opportunity to appear before the members today to discuss
GM’s perspectives on the issue of data privacy.
GM
appreciates the deliberative and thoughtful approach this committee has taken to
the privacy issue. For
decades we at GM have worked hard to build strong relationships with the
millions of GM customers. These
relationships, based on high quality and exciting products and services, are
critically important to us. The
trust we have established and continue to reinforce through our policies and
practices is key to General Motors’ success in this extremely competitive
automotive and financial services market.
By
way of background, General Motors is the world’s largest industrial
corporation. GM designs,
manufacturers, and markets cars, trucks, heavy-duty transmissions, and
locomotives worldwide. Other
substantial business interests include Hughes Electronics Corporation and
General Motors Acceptance Corporation (GMAC).
GM cars and trucks are sold in 200 countries and the company has
manufacturing or assembly operations in more than 30 countries.
GM employs 400,000 people worldwide and partners with over 30,000
suppliers. In 2000, GM sold 8.7
million vehicles worldwide and had revenues of $185 billion.
Importance
of the privacy issue to GM
The
collection, use, and security of personally identifiable data collected on the
Internet and in the off-line world are important issues for GM.
We seek to align our internal processes and policies with consumer
expectations and data privacy laws worldwide.
We collect information through a variety of means, such as traditional
market research and response techniques, visits to GM web sites, subscriptions
to OnStar®, insurance, finance or mortgage products with GMAC, and
through in-vehicle technology designed to enhance our customers’ safety and
security.
GM’s
privacy concerns also apply to data GM maintains on employees.
A key business objective
for GM is the effective deployment and support of our workforce.
The ability to transfer human resource data across borders is extremely
important to companies that have a global footprint, such as ours.
Uses
of data and benefits to customers
GM
strives to balance the very
significant legal and societal expectations for privacy with the objective of
enhancing our customers’ ownership experience.
With a better understanding of our customers, we can make
their shopping, buying, and owning experience more enjoyable and make the entire
process more efficient and cost effective for GM.
Because
the development lead-time for vehicles ranges from approximately 24 to 36
months, it is important for us to understand customer preferences and market
trends. At GM, we apply predictive
modeling techniques to the data provided us by our customers to assess trends
and forecast our customers’ future preferences. The better we understand our customers and where we are
gaining or losing sales, the better we can focus our product and marketing
priorities.
We
also optimize our ongoing marketing efforts by tailoring relevant messages and
promotions to our current and prospective customers. Customers
generally own their vehicles for many years (almost a decade on average) and we
have built a substantial database with information on GM vehicle owners that we
use to facilitate after-market sales, repairs, next vehicle purchase, and to
cross-market the broad range of GM products and services. It
is important to note that customer information is also compiled to populate our
U.S. vehicle warranty database so that we can contact customers in the event of
a safety or customer satisfaction recall.
Customer
information may be shared with other parts of the company.
By offering a suite of products and services to our customers their
learning, shopping, buying, and owning experience is enhanced.
By way of example, GMAC’s real estate operation is focused on
coordinating realtor, mortgage, closing, moving, homeowner, and relocation
services that are critically important to anyone buying a new home.
By sharing customer information within the GMAC organization, we can
create a seamless service delivery platform that gives time back to the customer
and creates real value for them.
The
emergence of new technologies has facilitated more one-to-one communications
with our customers. Consequently,
we are moving toward a process whereby the consumer controls the type of
information they receive and the manner in which they receive it. The benefits to the customer of this data-rich analysis and
cross-marketing focus are increased satisfaction with products and services
better suited to their needs and marketing efforts that provide meaningful
benefit at the appropriate time and through the communication channel of their
choice.
What
data handling practices does GM employ
Attention
to the issue of data privacy has been elevated to the highest levels of
management at General Motors. Last
fall, a corporate officer assumed responsibility for developing a global data
privacy strategy for the corporation, and my position, which focuses on
coordinating our business units’ implementation of GM’s privacy strategy
globally, was also created.
GM
is implementing the strategy on a scheduled basis throughout GM’s global
marketplace through the adoption of privacy statements by individual GM business
units. These privacy statements will vary by business unit and the
applicable laws, customs, and culture of particular countries. GM
already has in place a global information security policy that provides
guidelines for appropriate use and handling of data.
Conclusion
Again,
we appreciate the opportunity to be here today to discuss GM’s approach to
data privacy and our commitment to respecting our customer’s privacy
preferences. We commend this
committee for taking a thoughtful approach to this complex issue.
We hope that you will continue to seek industry’s input to ensure the
approach adopted does not result in legislation that would be burdensome,
impractical and would produce unintended consequences.
These unintended consequences could include higher consumer costs,
prevention of legitimate information collection, and the creation of obstacles
to the free flow of information.
Thank
you.
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