FTC_spy

[jya@pipeline.com (John Young)]

   6-5-96. WaPo and NYP: 
 
   "Curbs on Cyberspace Ads Proposed." (WaPo) 
 
      Should spam be jammed and cookies be crumbled on the 
      Internet? Technologies with these gustatory short-hand 
      names are at the heart of industry, consumer and 
      government debate over privacy in cyberspace. The 
      Federal Trade Commission brought together major Internet 
      players for a two-day workshop examining the handling of 
      personal consumer information on the Internet, including 
      the practice of using "cookies." 
 
      "Privacy is somewhat of a snake ... but a snake can be 
      an opportunity," said Peter Harter, public policy 
      counsel for Netscape. 
 
   "Voluntary Rules Are Proposed For the Privacy of Internet 
   Users." (NYP) 
 
      But the proposal, made at a Federal Trade Commission 
      hearing on personal privacy in the information age, drew 
      fire from civil liberties groups and others concerned 
      over privacy issues. They argued that self-policing by 
      the industry would not restrain on-line abuses that they 
      said already range from surreptitious monitoring of 
      activities on the Internet to the illegal sale of 
      personal credit histories over the Internet. 
 
 
   FTC_pry