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... tolerance for unsolicited marketing messages. Over 95 % of cyber citizens have received unsolicited e-mail and the consensus is strong they are clearly annoyed and have taken steps to prevent it. This marketing technique, also known as spam, is ineffective to the point of being counter-productive. Cyber Dialogue recommended that Web sites only collect information that is absolutely necessary and "treat it with respect. " While published privacy policies are commonly used to inform users of the company's practice and gain their trust, the reality is that these policies are often inconspicuously placed on the site, full of legal jargon and difficult to understand. The long-term gain of retaining high-value customers clearly outweighs short-term gain of selling them out.
Building a two-way dialogue is what this medium is all about. Privacy protection is an issue that is not top-of-mind among consumers, but as soon as it is violated, the latent-sleeping giant awakes. Web sites should assure its customers that they are proactively on guard to protect their customers right to privacy. Companies should never compromise this commitment for short-lived benefits. Informed consent of the customers is vital to the use of e-data. Software programs circulating on the Internet are secretly using anonymous web browsers and other anonymizing services to defraud companies that pay Web users to surf the Internet.
Often called pay-to-sleep programs, such software has been circulated on popular Internet bulletin boards and chat rooms. The programs simulate web surfing on a computer while the user is away, generating funds from a pay-to-surf service. These programs rely on many anonymous web browsers to launder their web surfing. This slows the surfing for others using anonymous services, compelling the operators to pay for faster and more expensive Internet connections to the Web servers that run their site. Defrauding pay-to-surf companies has become the latest scam in cyberspace.
In the world of electronic commerce such a scenario is the cyber equivalent of discovering the local drug dealer has commandeered your stores pay phone, or learning that your accountant is laundering funds through your business. It also places the operators of anonymous sites in an ethical quandary: If your site is designed for anyone to use for any anonymous purpose, do you have a right to complain if someone is using it for a purpose that you find objectionable? We have to, on the one hand, say We dont care what you do, and on the other hand say We may not care what you do, but if you are doing something that we know of, that is circumventing the controls on our browser, you will be banned, said Steven Watsky, president of the Prague-based Websperts. net computer consulting company. We are in the unique position of not having to have records, yet we have to keep a certain record, a 404 log, so that our bandwidth does not get eaten up, he added. Watsky hopes to turn his Clandestination anonymous browser into a Swiss bank on the Internet, a subpoena-proof, untraceable site that will keep no records whatsoever of what users do with the browser.
Now soliciting venture capital, Watsky plans to relocate his server to a foreign country that he declined to name that is exempt from international laws requiring him to comply with subpoenas for user records. But six weeks ago, after changing the file name of his anonymous browser, Watsky discovered that a few IP addresses were hitting his site thousands of times looking for the old file name. If we see a great number of files not found, you are doing one of two things: You are either using an outdated address for our browser, or you are doing something on our site that you should not be doing, Watsky said. Meanwhile, however, Watsky said the fraudulent software programs are clogging his browser and placing a drag on his server with tens of thousands of erroneous hits. After a single IP address logged 500 404 s, he did some research. He tracked the user to an address on a free Web hosting service, and was surprised at what he found.
The software program in use, called Move This! , was tied into virtually every anonymous service in the world, Watsky said. He had a foolproof way of you being able to score points and the pay-to-surf services would not know that you had lied about the number of points or that you had loaded up the points yourself, he said. Privacy Times found copies of Move This! and similar programs on the betanews. com Website, a reputable site that posts pre-release versions of commercial software, shareware, and freeware programs.
Other programs on betanews included all Mouse and Fake Surf, all touted as programs designed to simulate Web surfing. Watsky said that for the past six weeks he has been playing a cat and mouse game with users of the software. The only way he was able to shut off the offending users was to go directly to the pay-to-surf companies with the account numbers of the perpetrators. Dot coms have been caught snooping all summerland a new privacy survey of over 1, 000 Internet surfers shows they are striking back. The dispute du jour involves Pharmatrak. Privacy advocates accused the Boston technology firm of secretly tracking the Web habits of those who visit the sites of eleven pharmaceutical giants, including Pfizer, Pharmacia, and SmithKline Beecham.
By using tiny computer data tags called cookies, " Pharmatrak records the browsing habits of users wanting to know more about various medical conditions such as herpes, allergies, and drug addiction. While Pharmatrak officials say they track users anonymously, the company's Web site states that in the future it may personally identify visitors. Deception apparently begets deception. A study released by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that about one quarter of Net users have provided phony personal data to Web sites: invented e-mail addresses, fake Social Security numbers, and alter egos complete with bogus incomes, genders, and hobbies. These "guerrilla tactics" serve the dual purposes of camouflaging the surfer while also distorting the data collected online. "Lying has become more socially acceptable because of how rampant and out of control the privacy violations are, " says Carrie McLaren, editor of Stay Free! , a magazine that advocates online deceit. Like previous privacy studies, the Pew survey found an overwhelming share of Internet users 86 percentage worried about the privacy of their personal data online.
For some surfers the solution is to do nothing. Nearly half of those online have not yet provided their real e-mail addresses, names, or other personal info to a Web site. (This group includes mostly people who click away from a Web site when asked for data, but also those who have never been asked, and those who lie. ) While this lack of participation does not prevent Web companies from collecting data, it keeps the surfer's online profile anonymous. The study also found that few consumers use software designed to protect their online privacy. The only privacy tools users really have are dishonesty and overly complicated technologies. Only five percent of surfers have used a program that cloaks a user's identity from Web sites. The Pew study found that 86 percent of Net users want "opt-in" privacy policies that would require companies to win their permission before using personal information.
But that runs counter to industry practices. An agreement negotiated between a group of the largest Web advertisers and the Federal Trade Commission generally places the burden on the consumer to opt out" of such data collection. Until online privacy policies change, the Pew study suggests consumers thirst for vengeance. If a company violates its online policy, 94 percent of Net users want its executives punished eleven percent even favor jail time. The use of online deception tactics such as fake names highlights the compartmentalization that is the basic tool of people who want to control their privacy. Judith Death, an MIT professor who studies identity and online behavior, says that until Web sites design spaces that are clearly public or private, users will have trouble choosing what information to share and what to hide.
She adds that such fundamental decisions about what to share shouldnt be about reading the fine print of a Web sites privacy policy, but instead should be as obvious as the difference between staying in the privacy of your own home versus walking down the street. When a user is in public Internet space such as an online store, she suggests, the user would be correct in assuming that her movements are watched. When the user was in private space, he would have the right to expect that nothing about his activities there would be monitored, gathered into a profile, or sold to anyone or any firm unless he authorized it. Just as people act one way in their dens and another way at a party, Internet users want to make sure that the Internet world recognizes nuances about when public and viewable events are occurring as opposed to private and sensitive communications. Internet users may not know all the tricks when it comes to protecting their privacy online, but they know problems when they see them. And if their trust is betrayed, they want vengeance.
The Federal Trade Commission currently lacks the authority to enforce privacy standards on commercial Web sites, unless the content is directed at children. In May of this year, the FTC released a report on privacy online that noted that only 20 % of the busiest sites implemented the four widely-accepted fair information practices: 1) notice, displaying a clear and conspicuous privacy policy, 2) choice, allowing consumers to control the dissemination of information they provide to a site, 3) access, opening up the customers personal information file for inspection, and 4) security, protecting the information from consumers. The commission maintained that industry self-regulation had fallen short. Even as it agreed to a self-regulation scheme with Internet advertisers, the FTC called on Congress to expand the agency's enforcement power to ensure adequate protection of consumer privacy online. In their attitudes, Internet users express considerable fears about a number of problems they might face online. They report, though, that the actual incidence of online problems is not very substantial.
Finally, despite those fears, they behave in surprisingly trusting ways in many sensitive online areas. However, those fears cannot be discounted because they do seem to inhibit some groups, especially Internet novices and parents, from participating in some kinds of Internet activities. Concerns about privacy are notably higher among some groups, especially Internet novices (those who first got online within the past six months), parents, older Americans, and women. In some instances, these fears are associated with lower participation in some online activities, especially commercial and social activities. There is no way to know yet whether these groups will eventually become more comfortable and less fearful in the online world or whether their wariness will permanently limit their use of the Internet until their concerns about protecting personal information are met. Bibliography:
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Research essay sample on Federal Trade Commission E Mail Addresses
