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Re: more breaking privacy news (from Wall St Journal via NewsScan)



"The whole goal is to let people get free service that is bearable," says
Mr. Hosea.

Hmm, so less ads is bearable, huh? Being tracked must be 'bearable' too. I
disagree. I think it's unbearable.

If online ads are so offensive then why not just pick up and install some
of the software out there that blocks ads when you surf? I believe they
make software to do that, don't they? 

Hmm block ads myself or be tracked, even if it only is a score---oh yes
and there is that lovely possibility of tracking the words I use at search
engines..... 

I think I'd opt for blocking the ads myself.

However there is that point that is raised in this article about less
afluent not so well informed about the web people using this service and
getting the short end of the privacy stick. Very similar to what I said in
response to James' response about privacy and self-regulation....

Robyn

"Reality is the leading cause of stress
among those who are in touch with it."
--Jane Wagner


On Mon, 1 May 2000, James S. Wilson wrote:

> Date: Mon, 1 May 2000 12:08:21 -0400
> From: James S. Wilson <wilsj@ils.unc.edu>
> To: inls310-74@ruby.ils.unc.edu
> Subject: Re: more breaking privacy news (from Wall St Journal via
>     NewsScan)
> 
> A Plan to Track Web Use Stirs Up Privacy Concerns
> By JULIA ANGWIN
> Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
> 
> 
> A tiny new Web company, Predictive Networks Inc. of Boston, is causing
> concern among privacy advocates -- even before its start-up Monday.
> 
> The reason: Predictive has developed software that can track every site a
> Web surfer visits and build a "digital silhouette," or a profile of him or
> her based on those movements. If someone were to visit an online sailing
> site, say, then a travel site and a scuba site, Predictive's profile model
> might immediately send that person sunscreen or snorkel ads in pop-up
> windows. The company also plans to target news content based on a user's
> profile.
> 
> Predictive believes that Web users will be willing to let them track their
> every move online in exchange for a cheaper rate from their Internet service
> provider. Starting today, IDT Corp., of Hackensack, N.J., will use
> Predictive's software for its free Internet service called free-atlast.com.
> 
> Predictive will share ad revenue with IDT and other ISPs it signs up in the
> future. Advertisers, who will place their ads through Predictive, are so
> eager for this sort of precision targeting that some have already agreed to
> pay ad rates as much as six times more expensive than usual.
> 
> Although other free Internet-service providers already track and target
> their customers, privacy advocates are concerned because the Predictive
> software pushes the depth of digital eavesdropping to a new level. There are
> federal laws about listening in on other people's phone conversations, and
> privacy proponents argue that such protections should extend to the Net --
> largely accessed via phone lines, after all.
> 
> "It takes a court order and tight supervision to listen over a telephone
> link," says Dave Farber, a privacy advocate and professor of
> telecommunications at the University of Pennsylvania. "It's really time for
> Congress to set limits and decide that we need a privacy policy."
> 
> Privacy advocates also suggest that such profiling software will encourage
> more and more ISPs to track customers since it's getting easier to do so.
> And that could make less-affluent people, who flock to free ISP services,
> particularly vulnerable, says Lauren Weinstein, founder of the online
> Privacy Forum, an advocacy group. Because they can't afford monthly Internet
> fees, he says, "a lot of people would be basically coerced into giving up
> their personal information."
> 
> Until now, most tracking and profiling online has been done by individual
> Web sites trying to determine who their visitors are, or by advertising
> networks such as DoubleClick Inc. That company stirred a privacy backlash
> earlier this year for its plans to tie its database on Web-surfing behavior
> with people's names and addresses. DoubleClick has since backed down.
> Traditionally, large ISPs haven't tracked their customers' surfing.
> 
> Predictive founder Devin Hosea, 30 years old, left his job as vice president
> of technology investment for GE Capital's equity capital group in 1998 to
> pursue his passion for artificial intelligence. He says the budding
> opposition to Predictive surprises him. "We created this company to solve
> the privacy dilemma -- people want personalization but also want their
> privacy," he says.
> 
> The product he created requires ISP customers to download Predictive's
> software onto their personal computers. The program then keeps tabs on which
> Web sites were visited. Each user receives a score based on the sites they
> visit. For example, a visit to the Fidelity Web site would trigger a high
> score in the areas of age and income, he says, reflecting the older wealthy
> visitors typical for the site. The score is then modified based on each
> subsequent site visited.
> 
> Mr. Hosea says that Predictive stores only the scores in its database, and
> discards the actual list of sites visited. The ISP doesn't have access to
> the scores. Users will be allowed to look at their scores twice a year, he
> said, much as people can review their credit reports.
> 
> The software also has the capability to collect any words typed into a Web
> page, such as keywords at a search engine, but Mr. Hosea says the company
> hasn't decided yet whether to perform that task. Any issues created by the
> keyword search, he says, will be resolved by an independent privacy
> governing board he has appointed, which will be run by Harvey A.
> Silverglate, a Boston civil-liberties lawyer.
> 
> Mr. Hosea says the service allows Predictive to send ads and content that
> users actually want to see. In some market tests, he says, users clicked on
> 16% of ads they saw using Predictive's software. Industry statistics show
> that less than a 1% average is more typical on the Web.
> 
> Michael Packer, director of domestic operations for IDT, says the high
> "click-through" rate has been an attractive lure for advertisers on
> free-atlast.com. Advertisers are paying as much as $30 per thousand viewers,
> Mr. Packer said, compared with a rate of about $5 to $10 per thousand at
> most free ISPs.
> 
> Since the ad rates are high, users will have to look at fewer ads than they
> do on other free Internet services. Also, Predictive's ads can be turned off
> by a mouse click, while most other free ISPs place an unmoveable bar of Web
> advertising on the screen at all times.
> 
> "The whole goal is to let people get free service that is bearable," says
> Mr. Hosea.
> 
> 
>