----------------------------------------------------------------------------- _____ _____ _______ / ____| __ \__ __| ____ ___ ____ __ | | | | | | | | / __ \____ / (_)______ __ / __ \____ _____/ /_ | | | | | | | | / /_/ / __ \/ / / ___/ / / / / /_/ / __ \/ ___/ __/ | |____| |__| | | | / ____/ /_/ / / / /__/ /_/ / / ____/ /_/ (__ ) /_ \_____|_____/ |_| /_/ \____/_/_/\___/\__, / /_/ \____/____/\__/ The Center for Democracy and Technology /____/ Volume 2, Number 21 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- A briefing on public policy issues affecting civil liberties online ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- CDT POLICY POST Volume 2, Number 21 May 30, 1996 CONTENTS: (1) Your Privacy Online - CDT Unveils Demonstration and Clearinghouse (2) Join Rep. White Wed 6/5 At HotWired to Discuss the Internet Caucus, the CDA, and other Internet Policy Issues (3) Subscription Information (4) About CDT, contacting us ** This document may be redistributed freely with this banner in tact ** Excerpts may be re-posted with permission of <editor@cdt.org> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- (1) Your Privacy Online - CDT Unveils Demonstration & Clearinghouse Many people surf the World Wide Web with an illusion of anonymity, believing that their activities are unobserved and that they can explore the Internet without leaving a trail. In reality, this is not the case. During the normal course of using the Internet, a great deal of personally revealing information is routinely generated, collected, and stored. Most of this information is collected for purposes of system maintenance, billing, or other necessary functions. But a sophisticated marketer, determined hacker, or law enforcement official can put together a detailed profile of your online activities, personal tastes, interests, habits and vices with relative ease. Today, the Center for Democracy and Technology unveiled an interactive privacy demonstration and privacy policy clearinghouse on our World Wide Web site. The demonstration is located at http://www.cdt.org/privacy/ The goals of the demonstration are two fold: 1. To educate the public about the extent to which personal information is automatically revealed online, and 2. To begin to make available examples of privacy and information usage policies that give people greater knowledge of and control over the personal information revealed online. The current focus of this "Privacy Clearinghouse" is centered on commercial online service providers (ie, America Online, CompuServe, Prodigy, Microsoft). Future updates of the clearinghouse will include information on Internet Service Providers, content providers, and web browser software. Future updates will also explore the extent that users can employ various technological solutions to control the collection and disclosure of personal information. FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION TO HOLD HEARINGS ON ONLINE PRIVACY On June 4 and 5, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will hold hearings to explore online privacy issues. The FTC is particularly interested in exploring privacy protecting technologies which empower users to exercise more control over the collection and use of personally identifiable information online. CDT has been invited to present testimony at the hearings. Testimony and other background information on the FTC hearings will be available at CDT's web page at the end of next week. Details on the hearings are available at http://www.ftc.gov/. WHY SHOULD NETIZENS CARE ABOUT THIS ISSUE? Although it may not seem like it, someone is following you through cyberspace. Every time you retrieve a file, view an image, send an email message or jump to a new web site, a record is created somewhere on the Net. While much of this information may never be used, it can be, and you have little control over it. In the hands of a marketer with a powerful computer, or the government, it is possible to build a detailed profile of your tastes and preferences by monitoring your online activities. The information can be used to send you unsolicited email or snail mail, to call you, or to even put you on a list of people likely to support a particular political candidate. A single piece of information about you can support a tremendous range of activities. For example, if your repeated visits to web sites containing information on cigarettes results in free samples, coupons, or even email to you about a new tobacco product, you may not be concerned. However, if your visits to these web sites result in escalating insurance premiums due to categorization as a smoker - now you're beginning to get concerned. HOW PERSONAL INFORMATION IS COLLECTED ONLINE Web sites and Web browsers -------------------------- Your personal information (including your hobbies, political and product interests and ways to contact you, such as your email address) can be collected by web sites in two ways: directly or indirectly. * PASSIVE RECORDING OF TRANSACTIONAL INFORMATION: The transactional information revealed in the normal course of surfing the net reveals a great deal of information about your online activities. When you visit a particular web site, for example, the webmaster can determine what files, pictures, or other information you are most interested in (and what you ignored), how long you examined a particular page, image or file, where you came from, where you went to. Web servers collect transactional information in order to allow the system operator to perform necessary system maintenance, auditing, and other essential system functions. However, when correlated with other sources of personal information, including marketing databases, phone books, voter registration lists, etc, a detailed profile of your online activities can be created without your knowledge or consent. * COOKIES: Additionally, many web browsers contain a feature called "cookies," or client-side persistent information. Cookies allows any web site to store information about your visit to that site on your hard drive. Every time you return to that site, "cookies" will read your hard drive to find out if you've been there before. (The Privacy Demonstration has a link to a site that utilizes cookies.) * DIRECT DISCLOSURE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION: A growing number of web sites offer users the ability to register with the site. In many cases, registration brings real, important benefits, such as access to special areas, timely information, discounts, etc. While registration or other mechanisms by which users divulge personal information to a web site provide some obvious benefits to a users, it also provides the site's operator with a detailed picture of how you use the site. Regardless of how the information is obtained, a great deal of personally identifiable information is revealed in the normal course of surfing the web. Commercial Online Service Providers ----------------------------------- Commercial online service providers are configured in a variety of ways, but generally, little personally identifiable information is revealed to Internet sites visited directly from an online service. If you subscribe to a commercial online service, your service provider has access to lots of information about your online activities. These records are generated in the normal course of using the service, and are important for billing and maintenance purposes. However, not all services treat the use and disclosure of this information the same way. Please visit The Center for Democracy and Technology's Clearinghouse on Privacy Policies (http://www.cdt.org/privacy/) for a detailed description of the information practices of the major commercial online services. Future updates of the clearinghouse will focus on other Internet entities, such as browsers, content providers, and Internet service providers. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (2) JOIN CONGRESSMAN RICK WHITE (R-WA) LIVE ONLINE TO TALK ABOUT THE INTERNET CAUCUS, THE CDA, AND TAKE YOUR QUESTIONS Congressman Rick White (R-WA) will be live online at HotWired on Wednesday June 5 at 9:00 pm ET to discuss his efforts to encourage better communication between members of Congress and the Internet community, his plans for the Congressional Internet Caucus, and other topics. Representative White will also answer questions from Netizens. DETAILS ON THE EVENT * Wednesday June 5, 9 - 10 pm ET (6 pm Pacific) on HotWired URL: http://www.hotwired.com/wiredside/ To participate, you must be a registered HotWired member (there is no charge for registration). You must also have RealAudio(tm) and a telnet application properly configured to work with your browser. Please visit http://www.hotwired.com/wiredside/ for information on how you can easily register for Hotwired and obtain RealAudio. Wednesday's forum is another in a series of planned events, and is part of a broader project coordinated by CDT and the Voters Telecommunications Watch (VTW) designed to bring the Internet Community into the debate and encourage members of Congress to work with the Net.community on vital Internet policy issues. Transcripts from last week's discussion with Senator Leahy are available at http://www.cdt.org/crypto/. Events with other members of Congress working on Internet Policy Issues are currently being planned. Please check http://www.cdt.org/ for announcements of future events ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (3) SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION Be sure you are up to date on the latest public policy issues affecting civil liberties online and how they will affect you! Subscribe to the CDT Policy Post news distribution list. CDT Policy Posts, the regular news publication of the Center For Democracy and Technology, are received by more than 9,000 Internet users, industry leaders, policy makers and activists, and have become the leading source for information about critical free speech and privacy issues affecting the Internet and other interactive communications media. To subscribe to CDT's Policy Post list, send mail to policy-posts-request@cdt.org with a subject: subscribe policy-posts If you ever wish to remove yourself from the list, send mail to the above address with a subject of: unsubscribe policy-posts ----------------------------------------------------------------------- (4) ABOUT THE CENTER FOR DEMOCRACY AND TECHNOLOGY/CONTACTING US The Center for Democracy and Technology is a non-profit public interest organization based in Washington, DC. The Center's mission is to develop and advocate public policies that advance democratic values and constitutional civil liberties in new computer and communications technologies. Contacting us: General information: info@cdt.org World Wide Web: URL:http://www.cdt.org/ FTP URL:ftp://ftp.cdt.org/pub/cdt/ Snail Mail: The Center for Democracy and Technology 1634 Eye Street NW * Suite 1100 * Washington, DC 20006 (v) +1.202.637.9800 * (f) +1.202.637.0968 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- End Policy Post 2.21 5/30/96 -----------------------------------------------------------------------