Policy Post 2.21 - Your Privacy Online: CDT Unveils Demo & Clearinghouse

Bob Palacios editor at cdt.org
Thu May 30 16:09:50 PDT 1996


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   The Center for Democracy and Technology  /____/     Volume 2, Number 21
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      A briefing on public policy issues affecting civil liberties online
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 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 at cdt.org>
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(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.

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(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

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(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
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publication of the Center For Democracy and Technology, are received by
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activists, and have become the leading source for information about
critical free speech and privacy issues affecting the Internet and other
interactive communications media.

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(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 at 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

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End Policy Post 2.21                                           5/30/96
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