'Permission marketing' as currently practiced is a joke. Marketers work hard to get 'permission' to communicate from the customer, and once the customer gives 'permission' the floodgates of spam are open.  Future permissions are compromised by this process.

Permissions (note the plural) give the individual control over the what, when, how and why of information exchanges with organizations.  Permissions management revolves around two areas:

• receiving information
• releasing information 

Receiving information

Here the individual is able to specify what messages he wishes to receive from suppliers, about what, when and how.  For example, he may be planning to buy a new car in June and go on holiday in December. He therefore specifies his willingness to receive messages about new cars, in this price bracket, from these brands, in the months of April and May. Likewise, for his holiday planning: skiing not trekking, etc. (see Reverse Messaging) At the same time, he might signal a general willingness to receive messages all year round about golf, but only from these named suppliers

Releasing information

Over the coming years individuals will collect increasing amounts of rich personal information in their Personal Knowledge Banks. Many organizations will be keen to gain access to various fields of this data for various purposes including marketing, research and innovation. Permissions management will allow individuals to choose what data to release to which people (or vendors, organizations, datastores, et al), for what purposes, on what terms and conditions. For example, the individual may want to release information to:

• health researchers about certain aspects of medical history and lifestyle, on an anonymous basis, for free, for the purposes of cancer research
• details about current inventory of hardware and software to a specialist retailer/reseller, on a named but once-only use basis, for the purposes of advice on solving a computing problem and making the next best purchase
• details about brand preferences on an anonymous basis, to marketing companies, in return for a fee

Business case, for the individual

Permissions management puts the individual in control of how his data is used, when, and for what purposes. Specific benefits include:

• access to information about the right things, at the right time, from the right people while reducing the amount of irritating spam and intrusion receiving information about the right things, at the right time, from the right people
• easier access to expert advice
• the ability (for the customer) to monetize the value of personal data and personal attention

Business case, for the supplier

• the ability to communicate with the right potential customers about the right things at the right time, therefore eliminating huge amounts of waste from their marketing and research program
• the ability to access more, richer information from individuals – including volunteered individual previously unavailable
• the ability to access this information faster and cheaper than traditional market research
• access to vetted, prequalified customer information

Necessary infrastructure

Permissions management relies on:

• easily accessible and positive user experience software, ultimately providing the ability to slice and dice large numbers of data fields with ease
• software that allows individuals to make and change permissions with a minimum of hassle, at a level of granularity that makes the effort worthwhile
• protocols for permission intermediaries or services and suppliers to share the resulting information securely, at low cost, with maximum confidentiality and protection and minimal confusion/misunderstandings.