6-5-96. WaPo and NYP: "Curbs on Cyberspace Ads Proposed." (WaPo) Should spam be jammed and cookies be crumbled on the Internet? Technologies with these gustatory short-hand names are at the heart of industry, consumer and government debate over privacy in cyberspace. The Federal Trade Commission brought together major Internet players for a two-day workshop examining the handling of personal consumer information on the Internet, including the practice of using "cookies." "Privacy is somewhat of a snake ... but a snake can be an opportunity," said Peter Harter, public policy counsel for Netscape. "Voluntary Rules Are Proposed For the Privacy of Internet Users." (NYP) But the proposal, made at a Federal Trade Commission hearing on personal privacy in the information age, drew fire from civil liberties groups and others concerned over privacy issues. They argued that self-policing by the industry would not restrain on-line abuses that they said already range from surreptitious monitoring of activities on the Internet to the illegal sale of personal credit histories over the Internet. FTC_pry