fwd: Privacy on the Internet

[Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>]

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Date: Mon, 14 Oct 1996 08:48:23 -0300
To: dcsb@ai.mit.edu (Digital Commerce Society of Boston)
From: The Old Bear <oldbear@arctos.com>
Subject: fwd: Privacy on the Internet
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INTERNET USERS VALUE THEIR PRIVACY

The 1996 Equifax/Harris Consumer Privacy Survey for the Internet
reveals that Internet users place a high premium on their online
privacy, relative to non-Internet users.  Sixty percent of the
Internet users interviewed said their anonymity shouldn't be
compromised when they visit a Web site or use e-mail.  Only 45%
of non-Internet users were sympathetic to the desire for online
anonymity.

About half (49%) of the Internet users who participated felt that
the federal government should be restricted in its ability to
scan Internet messages, compared to only a third (34%) of
non-users.

Seventy-one percent of Internet users did not want online service
providers to track their Web surfing patterns for marketing
purposes, while 63% of non-users felt this activity was intrusive.

The telephone survey of 36 million people also found that Internet
users tended on average to be better educated, earn more money and
have a somewhat more liberal outlook than non-users.

source: BNA Daily Report for Executives
        October 10, 1996 - page A24



CONSORTIUM TO DEVELOP NET PRIVACY PRINCIPLES

A group of companies involved in electronic commerce via the
Internet have banded together to develop a set of privacy principles
for doing business over the Net.

The Privacy Assured group includes WorldPages, Inc., Four11, I/PRO,
Match.Com and NetAngels.Com, and was sparked by recent reports of
database services such as Nexis/Lexis providing sensitive
information to paying customers.

Privacy Assured, which is a pilot program of the Electronic Frontier
Foundation's eTrust project, will post its blue PA logo on Web sites
that adhere to its standards.  These standards include: not knowingly
listing information about individuals that has not been volunteered
for publication; not allowing reverse searches to determine
individuals' names from e-mail addresses, phone numbers or other
information; releasing only aggregated usage statistics, not
individual information; and giving individuals the option to delete
personal information from lists.

source: Broadcasting & Cable
        October 7, 1996
        page 87


via edupage

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-----------------
Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com)
e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"The cost of anything is the foregone alternative" -- Walter Johnson
The e$ Home Page: http://www.vmeng.com/rah/