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Feb. 1, 2001
Postcards from Paradise
By Bill Bateman
Living in Southern California has its advantages. I have my window open because it is hot today at the beach and a warm wind is blowing, ruffling the curtains. It is January 2, 2001. There are ISPs to pick from like oranges in the orchards. The Rose Parade was beautiful and life is good. But there are minor rumblings here in the Sunshine State and it's not the San Andreas Fault. The politicians are in deep trouble over the problems of electricity and what it will cost. Rising demand is blamed on increased computer and technology use. But underneath that issue is a second problem--an increasing number of complaints of the invasion of consumer privacy at both the business and personal level. The Los Angeles Times is full of such stories.
One report that caught my attention was about a certain large technology company, caught in the recent downturn of stocks, considering selling the customer information database it had gathered to raise some cash. It had a lot of information to sell--good stuff, too. What medication you take, your credit limits, and what you buy. Many sites track your mouse clicks, and it is said that they can even find out where else you go. People who had given that company information were outraged, of course. The situation illustrates a point of growing concern to consumers that must eventually reach the legislators. This is a good issue in which to invest a few stamps.
Your information and who has access to it is a hot potato. In theory, you must identify yourself to your host when you visit a site. (Can I come in please? Oh, it's Bill!) So the industry created a cookie, a cute name but very nosey. Information gathering has progressed beyond simple identity data and now actually allows the tracking of what you do on your computer to target you for ads.
If we may drop into Unix for a second, the command "in.identd" can be altered by your ISP to prevent your personal information from being given away. Call and ask if you're concerned. Unless you are on a free site that requires ad placement, you should be able to convince them to change it for you easily.
Just as cookies and profiles create concern, so do Active-X, Java, and Java Script. Reportedly, each has security holes you could drive a truck through. Such breeches are said to allow all kinds of interior machine access. You can supposedly find certain hacker sites and obtain information on tracking a real name and address from a hotmail or Yahoo account, for example.
This problem has spawned a significant number of Web sites ranging from Junkbusters to the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC). You can find both sites and more via your search engines: Computers>security>cookies or the name of the group.
All of these Web sites are concerned with people poking around inside your personal space, your machines. Kind of like odor-free "dumpster-diving", if you stop and think about it. Some offer advice, some will sell you software to block it. There are even a few places that give you free software, but you do need to befriend a techie to make it work. I know how to get around in the registry, but it is a very serious thing and I normally let someone more skilled than myself do it.
All of this argle-bargle will lead inevitably to something being done. One of those ideas is called an OPS or Open Profiling Standard. The Federal Trade Commission is making regulatory noises and this is one of the responses. In theory, the OPS are supposed to supply consumers with a way to eliminate repetitive entries and regain control of what information is sent. (You may choose to give out your e-mail but not phone number at home, for example.) Business will like it because it will give them more information with a keystroke and it is easy to verify.
But the issue here is trust. According to EPIC, nearly half of the top 100 Web sites collect personal information. Yet less than 20 had any hard and fast privacy policies in place. Only eight allow you, the users, input in what happens to that data (limit or restrict its sale, for instance). One out of a hundred--and ONE ONLY--allows you the user to access and alter information about yourself. Perhaps that is why trust is in such short supply? (Some of the information on this topic was from information sources provided in an article by Paul Bissex entitled "Open Sesame." I recommend his article to you, as it is much more in-depth and complete. It can be found at www.webreview.com in the "Bleeding Edge" series.)
Now I know some people might say, "Why do you care what they do with those cookies? Just what are you trying to hide? What HAVE you been up to? Hmmmę."
That's an interesting question to open at both the personal and the business level. Many articles earlier, I told the story of sending e-mail to a friend from my school computer and commenting in it that he should watch what he said, as I had heard people snooped in them. The next day I was called to the principal's office and told not to tell others that people snoop in our e-mail. It was not true. Hmmm.
With that in mind, first consider the personal arena. Do you want someone going through your home mailbox and reading your mail? Obviously not--that is a Federal offense. Or how about stealing credit card offers? That's identity theft, which can take years to repair, if you can correct it at all.
Take it to the next step. What expectation of privacy do you have or should you have at work regarding your e-mail? If you use the on-line refill service for your prescription, does that information go beyond you and the pharmacist? Now think about all of the information that could be difficult for you, especially if it came out as a half-truth or incorrect? Do you (or any member of your family) take any medication that your employer may be stigmatized by if discovered? Our privacy at the personal level is very important. I believe that those rights should extend to the Internet.
At the business level we have an even more tangled web. It is common practice to "dumpster-dive" in corporate trash bins for information. Hackers are becoming more sophisticated. Microsoft had an incident with a hacker and some source code not long ago. No longer must you worry about someone in your trash bin. Now you must be concerned with your desktop! We have firewalls and filters and we check for viruses and Trojan horses. But new code is being written all the time.
As I mentioned above, each click we make at an increasing number of sites provides someone else with data about our shopping habits, what we read, and us. Yet an alarmingly small number of sites allow us to see what they have taken, and hardly any of them will let us edit it. That junk mail that appears in your In-Box from places never visited is hard evidence of how your information is passed around. Remember--ignore Spam. Trying to delete just confirms the address.
As far as profiles, cookies and OPS, you'll have to decide what you are comfortable with and what you will and will not accept. That applies to business as well as personal 'Net use. If you don't know what your workplace policies are, ask. When you do business with a site, look at the very bottom and see if it has a privacy statement. Your information belongs to you.
You can set your browser to ask before accepting cookies, but be prepared to spend a lot more time clicking "yes" or "no". Ask your ISP what it does to protect your information. I've purchased a filter and, once a month, I "toss my cookies" (if you'll pardon the expression).
I go from Start>Find> type in "cookies" in the dialog box. Clicking on a file opens it, and then from the Edit menu, Select All, and hit the delete key. Try it yourself. It won't hurt a thing. Some are sites you've never been to. The profile linked you there. Keep your virus checker on, up to date, and set to screen your e-mail. If you don't, you may find that you have been the recipient of a whole lot more than an In-Box full of Spam. As always, I'd like your feedback and suggestions to share with others.
With that said, let's look at some of the virus-free e-mail I receive from readers. I have a nice note reminding me that, in my buyer's recommendations a few issues ago, I completely left out Mac users. Guilty as charged. I love Macintoshes, but our district will not support them and we cannot buy them for the classroom. I like the advances Apple made in laptops and I know of one campus in Los Angeles County that is full of G4s. People actually create the credits we see on motion pictures right there on those machines.
I believe that the same ideas I used for the PC shopper will work equally well for the Macs. Good research and your own gut instinct will help you out time and time again. One of my friends from SCWriP just bought an iMac. We both bemoaned the lack of an "A" drive but he still is tickled with his new machine. A wise shopper, he did his homework first and planned accordingly.
I am very pleased so many of you took time to respond to the "Rate Your Tech Department" challenge in the "Good Witches and Bad Witches" article. (If you're a new reader, go back a few issues and look for the Oz reference and you'll understand what I'm talking about.) I'll continue to take votes and comments until the 10th of this month, then I'll tabulate the results and that will be our topic for next time.
For now, I'm off to buy some sunscreen and check out a locking mailbox.
E-mail: Bill Bateman
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