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[FYI] U.S.: Drug Office Ends Tracking of Web Users
- To: debate@fitug.de
- Subject: [FYI] U.S.: Drug Office Ends Tracking of Web Users
- From: "Axel H Horns" <horns@ipjur.com>
- Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 11:58:17 +0200
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http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/06/biztech/articles/22net.html
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June 22, 2000
Drug Office Ends Tracking of Web Users
White House Admits Privacy Concerns
By MARC LACEY
WASHINGTON, June 21 -- The White House conceded today that it might
have violated federal privacy guidelines, and it ordered its Office
of National Drug Control Policy to stop using a software device that
tracks computer users who view the government's antidrug
advertisements on the Internet.
To monitor traffic on its Internet sites for children and parents,
the White House's drug policy office has employed computer files
known as cookies, which are placed in computers electronically --
usually without the knowledge of users -- to monitor their Internet
travels.
The software is widely used by commercial Web sites to record
information about the shopping habits and other interests of their
users. But White House officials said they saw a distinction between
companies tracking customers and the government doing similar
monitoring.
[...]
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