Corporate data-privacy specialists think they’re influencing their organizations to safeguard customers’ sensitive personal information but marketers are often undercutting their efforts, according to a new survey.

A new Ponemon Institute survey of 713 marketers and 498 individuals responsible for privacy and data protection got vastly different answers from the two groups, which were asked the same questions related to e-mail marketing and other practices. The Ponemon Institute found that the two groups had different notions about what kind of customer personal data could be shared in marketing activities.

The marketers were far more willing to share information such as home address, telephone, date of birth, gender, e-mail address, credit card and Social Security numbers. And 44% of the marketing group surveyed admitted they believed their organizations weren’t in compliance with privacy regulations -- whereas 84% of the privacy and data-protection professionals thought their businesses were.

The main conclusion to be drawn from the Ponemon Institute’s “2008 U.S. Study on Email Marketing Practices & Privacy,” says director Larry Ponemon, is that the marketers, who “are closer to the action” in business than the data-privacy folks, are confessing, “We’re getting away with murder.”

The data-privacy people in the organization are operating under the belief they’re doing something to help protect consumer data through policies and other efforts, Ponemon pointed out. But the reality is that the marketing side of the house is barreling ahead with its own ideas of what’s appropriate in terms of sharing personal data.

“While both groups believe that it is important for consumers and customers to trust the privacy commitments of organizations, marketers worry that complying with privacy regulations could hinder their ability to attract new customers,” the report states in its findings.

Perhaps not surprisingly, marketing and data-protection professionals don’t agree on the type of personal information that should be trusted to a third party. For instance, only 7% of data-privacy professionals said their organization shared Social Security numbers for marketing purposes, but 29% of marketers said they did. More than one-third of the marketers don’t limit the data they distribute to third parties, whereas 75% of the privacy professionals believe their organizations do limit the data to be shared, the report said.

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