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Re: Netscape and privacy



In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] (Chris Smyth) writes:

> It is true that a user automatically contacts the Netscape Web cite when
> starting the browser if he or she has not reset the default home page.  I
> reset my home page long ago, but I do not know if the Netscape site is still
> contacted anyway.  Nor do I know if Netscape is contacted when I quit the
> browser, or if elapsed usage time is tracked.

  We are counting unique installations of netscape.  We have no way
of mapping that information to a user name.  We don't save any
information about you when you contact our web site.  The Navigator
doesn't make connections to our site behind your back.

> The future Clark posits for his corporation depends on people adopting
> Netscape software for a wide variety of tasks. He wants the browser to
> evolve toward being a general multimedia web browser, mail handler,
> newsreader, and collaboration tool.  Such a tool would handle large amounts
> of private and/or proprietary information and the creator of such a tool
> must be extremely sensitive to privacy concerns in my opinion.  Collecting
> and relaying information about usage is potentially a significant violation
> of the privacy users will expect.

  We are very sensitive to privacy concerns.  A bunch of folks now
working here revolted against an effort to track keystrokes and
mouse clicks in Mosaic while they were at NCSA.  One of those
folks was marca himself.

	--Jeff

-- 
Jeff Weinstein - Electronic Munitions Specialist
Netscape Communication Corporation
[email protected] - http://home.netscape.com/people/jsw
Any opinions expressed above are mine.