Personal Matters
The issue of privacy on the Internet is moving to the forefront

Over the past several years, concerns for maintaining the privacy of personal information have crystallized around the Internet e-commerce phenomenon with two essential issues emerging. The first regards the extent of the information that an online business can glean from its customer’s computer without the customer knowing about it. And, there are concerns about the easily traceable electronic trail each transaction leaves. Then, there is the question of Internet security and the possibility of private information being intercepted.

Earlier this year the Federal Trade Commission authorized a study to examine how websites collect personal information and what is done with the information. There is widespread concern in the on-line industry that this study paves the way for government regulation of electronic data collection. The most likely regulatory action would require on-line companies to provide "subject access" to anyone requesting disclosure of personal information that has been gathered by the company. The cost to integrate that capability into existing systems would be enormous.

With that impetus, online businesses are realizing that they must do something to assure customers that their personal information is safe. Leading the way is IBM, which has decided not to advertise on any website that doesn’t clearly explain its policy on collecting personal information and how it will be used. In doing so, IBM becomes the first large company to tie its advertising to a privacy policy.

Microsoft and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, though unlikely bedfellows, have collaborated to produce a software product that will enable web browsers to "read" and evaluate the posted privacy policies of the websites that are so equipped. The information is then digested and reported to the consumer so that he or she can make a quick, yet informed, decision on whether to proceed with a transaction. (However, distribution of the software is being held up by a patent dispute and its use will require consumers to upgrade their browser software when and if it makes its debut.)

Some innovative companies are offering tools for navigating the web in security that are more proactive. One software package supplies the user with a false identity that is erased when the user leaves the site. A Canadian company called Zero Knowledge offers a service that encrypts an entire communication, then breaks it into three segments for transmission and decodes it at three randomly selected computers before forwarding it to the intended recipient. The company CEO claims it is "a system a Chinese dissident could rely on."

John F. Clark is College Technology Coordinator for the U.K. College of Communications and Information Studies

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