[FYI] Net privacy and the myth of self-regulation

["Axel H Horns" <horns@ipjur.com>]

http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1272-210-7534634-1.html

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Net privacy and the myth of self-regulation  

By Evan Hansen  

October 16, 2001  

Two of the principal tools championed by industry "self-regulators" 
to preserve online consumer privacy rights, disclosure and anonymity 
are fast looking like a smoke screen to justify some extraordinary 
corporate intrusions.  

Consider the case of ComScore Networks, one of several new online 
market research companies to emerge within the last year providing 
access to pure "clickstream" data on Web surfers. The company has 
signed up about 1.5 million members by offering software to speed up 
Web performance. In exchange, it demands complete access to all of 
the information that streams over the browser, peering in on 
everything from Web pages visited to secure transactions and even 
personal banking records.  

[...]  

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