BETH Givens has been called the "Dear Abby of Privacy" but the title doesn't quite encompass the totality of her role as a researcher, activist and consumer advocate.

For the past 14 years, Givens has worked as the founding director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a San Diego non profit group dedicated to helping consumers deal with the darker disadvantages of the information age.

The public interest group provides extensive information about privacy issues, primarily through its website, and occasionally intercedes on behalf of consumers with specific privacy-related complaints.

"She's very passionate about these privacy issues," said Mari Frank, a Laguna Niguel, California, lawyer who has collaborated with Givens. "Privacy is tied so closely to our liberty and our civil rights, but most people don't get it.

Givens and Frank met a decade ago, after someone had used Frank's confidential credit history and other personal information to buy a red convertible Mustang and obtain more than $50,000 by assuming Frank's identity. Creditors were demanding payment for purchases Frank never made and until she met Givens, the lawyer said she could find no information on what to do about it.

"We were the first non profit consumer organisation in the country to provide assistance to identity-theft victims," Givens said.

Now Citibank broadcasts amusing commercials about its identity theft protection programmes, but in the early 1990s Givens was one of the few people who understood the ramifications of such crimes.

"One of the more significant things Beth has done was to raise 'identity theft' as an issue to the American public," said Pam Dixon, a former journalist who now heads the World Privacy Forum. "And she did it by showing how people's lives were affected."

Givens, 55, founded the clearinghouse in 1992 at the University of San Diego Law School, under the auspices of USD's Centre for Public Interest Law.

A few years earlier she had graduated from the University of Southern California - Annenberg School for Communication, where she earned a master's degree in communications management.

A librarian by training, Givens had become increasingly fascinated by the societal implications of new technologies. Changes in telecommunications were particularly wrenching after the break-up of AT&T, and it was clear the shift from analog to digital-based technologies promised more industry upheavals.

Her first job at USD's Center for Public Interest Law was developing guides to help consumers with troubleshooting their own telephone problems.

"We wanted people to know that they didn't have to hire the phone company to fix their phones anymore," Givens said.
Consumers could try to figure out the problem and repair their phones themselves or hire an independent contractor for about half the cost the phone company might charge.

As state funding for that programme was running out, Givens said attorney Michael Shames of the Utility Consumers' Action Network first suggested that Givens create a public interest group focused on privacy.

"At first I didn't want to stray from telecom," said Givens, who saw herself on a career track to become a telecommunications policy expert. "But within two weeks of beginning my research on consumer privacy, I was hooked."
At first, the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse provided only consumer education, she said.

"In November 1992, we launched a hotline with an 800 number," Givens said. "We held a press conference, and afterward we had to turn off the ringers. You just picked up the phone and there was somebody there. It was amazing."

In the early years, the No 1 privacy concern was junk mail, Givens said. Callers also wanted to know what they could do about harassing telephone calls and voiced concerns about eavesdropping on calls using cordless phones.

Since then, the clearinghouse has gained nationwide prominence and Givens has emerged as a leading advocate on privacy issues in California and throughout the United States.

"There are a lot of legislators in Sacramento who will not vote on privacy legislation without her stamp of approval," said Robert C Fellmeth, a law professor and executive director of the Center for Public Interest Law at the University of San Diego. "She has an independent perspective, and that's what the Legislature should be hearing. They get plenty of information from people that have a profit stake."

Before starting the clearinghouse, Givens had worked for more than a decade in library sciences.

She spent much of that time travelling throughout Montana and showing librarians how to access computerised research abstracts, using a direct-dial terminal that required placing the telephone handset into the modem's acoustic coupler.

As time went on, she said, "I just got bitten by the information technology bug."

She says the most popular link now featured at the Clearinghouse web site, www.privacyrights.org, is a compilation of data breaches that have jeopardised the privacy of almost 90 million Americans since February 15, 2005.

"I think I have kind of a 'fairness' gene," Givens said. "I just feel that it's so important that people have good information at their fingertips."

Because she trained as a librarian, Givens also saw the importance of providing consumers with reliable information from trusted sources.

The clearinghouse Website maintains extensive information on financial privacy, medical records, direct marketing, workplace privacy and other issues.

At the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, DC, executive director Marc Rotenberg said the world is being transformed by information technologies that pose enormous risks as well as opportunities.

"Identity theft is a direct reflection of the changing economy and the changing nature of Internet commerce," Rotenberg said. "Protecting privacy in the Internet economy is equivalent to protecting the environment in an industrial economy."

Rotenberg said he is a "big fan of Givens". He has collaborated with her on consumer education campaigns and in workshops with the Federal Trade Commission.

By several accounts, what sets the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse apart from similar public interest groups is Givens' front-line work with consumers.

"I'm not sure many people realise how many lives Beth has touched through the clearinghouse," Dixon said. "There's very little self-interest in Beth. She really does want to make the world a better place."

Because people call the clearinghouse every day with questions or complaints, Givens is known for being among the first to identify new threats to privacy. Her latest worries include how employers are using online data to conduct background checks on job applicants, and cell phone harassment.
"When she says, 'I'm fearful of something coming down the pike,' it's almost always because of complaints she's been getting from consumers," said UCAN's Shames.
The clearinghouse has shared office space and some overhead costs with UCAN since 1996, when funding ran out under Given's initial grant at USD.

UCAN "has been very instrumental in ensuring that we continued to exist," Givens said. "We came close to shutting our doors. Since 1996, I've been rather fortunate in just being able to piece together funding."

She estimates that it costs about $250,000 a year to operate the clearinghouse, which has two full-time and three part-time employees.

Givens said she spends roughly one-third of her time raising funds.

USD's Fellmeth said he respects Givens' diligence and he compares her staying power as a privacy rights advocate to baseball's hardiest players.

"I admire the Stan Musials and Tony Gwynns and Cal
Ripkens, and not the Reggie Jacksons," Fellmeth said. "I admire the turtles of the world and not the hares - and she's a turtle. She is steady and consistent and tenacious. She will run the marathon with you, and I just think the world would be a better place if those were our heroes and not Paris Hilton."

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