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What is Opt-out? It is a self-regulatory practice the Direct Marketing Association and the American Marketing Association have adopted as a method for which individuals can protect themselves from having companies share personal information with others. The policy, which went into effect on July 1, 1999, was a self-governing idea in a preemptive attempt to avoid having mandatory practices legislation passed by the government regulating the privacy issue of data collection and usage. It appears to have worked for the most part, in that most business industries have avoided direct legislation imposed upon them. To some it may appear that businesses are doing their part to offer consumers choices in regards to privacy concerns, many feel that these are just facades and that the system that should be implemented is one that requires a person to opt-in rather than opt-out. The difference between the two is the opt-out approach allows companies to gather and make use of collected data unless otherwise instructed whereas the opt-in approach reverses this and does not allow any information to be gathered or used unless the business wanting to collect this information is given specific permission to. In fact, �some 86% of Internet users favor an �opt-in� privacy policy.�(PEW) It is not just the United States that is dealing with the growing privacy issues that the Internet is creating, other countries such as Britain and the European Union are also addressing these issues. The approach to handling the issues are very different. �The United States uses a sectoral approach that relies on a mix of legislation, regulation, and self-regulation. The European Union, however, relies on comprehensive legislation.� (Safe Harbor)