John sat at his desk, staring down at the thick dossier he'd just received
via messenger. A week earlier he had employed a Net-detective agency with a
come-on that read: "The place to find, locate and track down anybody! We offer
locate searches, marketing profile searches, DMV driver and vehicle searches,
telephone record searches, financial and bank searches, criminal and property
records, plus hundreds of free searches. Discover the secrets of the people with
whom you associate." All they required was a name. John wasn't interested in
snooping on sketchy neighbors, defaming some enemy, or digging for dirt on his
boss. He just wanted to see what Big Brother and his extended family knew about
him. As it turned out, to John's alarm, they knew a lot.
The file filled 82 pages. The photo clipped to page one was from his driver's
license. The basics were all there: Home and e-mail addresses, phone number,
Social Security number, height, and weight. Then followed more intimate items:
His religious affiliation, the make and year of his car, the value of his house;
the name and age of his son, where his son attends junior high, and his current
teacher.
It had the skinny on John's current job and salary, and every previous
employer going back 10 years; everywhere he's ever lived, his current neighbors
and their addresses and phone numbers. It had his military records; his cell
phone DNS number; a summary of his assets, including such particulars as his
account number; his mother's maiden name; and what he owes on his boat loan and
on each credit card.
The scope and breadth of his file went even further. There were his telephone
records, information on every traffic violation he's ever received, and an
indecent exposure citation from his college days; his dental records and the
prescription medicine he takes for hypertension and high blood pressure. It
listed the names and e-mail addresses of more than 20 people he regularly
communicates with, and the URLs of frequented Web sites, as well as how long he
stayed at each address, and the CDs and books he bought online.
With such particulars, one could determine what he had for supper last night,
where he buys his gas, that he's a pack-a-day smoker, and how much he lost in
Vegas last spring. They can see that he has a penchant for 12-year-old Scotch and
German lagers, the Green Party, action-adventure films and the occasional peek at
online pornography.
John's experience illuminates one of the most contentious issues facing the
Information Age: Our right to privacy. As the free-market flow of goods and
services migrates to the Internet, the gathering of consumer market demographics
has made privacy one of our most assaulted civil liberties. Online, our
interests, habits, patterns, and preferences seep through a sieve of trap doors,
windows, portals and peepholes. Cookies crumble onto our hard drives, swarming
traceable bugs over millions of computers, and it's all, for now, a legitimate
practice.
"The very technology that was supposed to free us from mass society and the
conformity of mass media has turned out to be as much a fishbowl as an
information highway. In modern society, we have discovered that being free often
means also being naked," writes Charles J. Sykes in his book "The End of Privacy"
(St. Martin's Press).
We know where you're going today
Most of us, willingly or otherwise, relent a little of ourselves every time
we go online. Web sites compel us to fill out questionnaires and entice us into
sweepstakes as a payoff for content, or surreptitiously drop cookies on our hard
drives that allow ad agencies to trace our movements and cross-reference our
vitals with other profile lists. We're willing to suffer banner ads and spam,
while the Internet unites vast networks of databases from government and
third-party compilers that are open for inspection with remarkably little effort
and money.
All this information may seem basic and benign, but in a different context
our footprints can lead to character inferences of alcohol abuse, gambling,
sexual orientation, political views and medical conditions--information that
would be of great interest to potential creditors, insurers, and employers who
could use it to draw damaging conclusions and make decisions affecting our lives
without our knowledge.
"Our fears have nothing to do with your getting customized
banner ads or too much junk mail. This is potentially about whether you will get
a loan, a job, or health insurance," says Jim Dempsey, policy analyst for the
Center for Democracy and Technology, a privacy advocate firm in Washington, D.C.
Big Brother Meets Big Browser
Personal information is blue-chip currency, and the big business of selling
and exchanging consumer profiles is beginning to raise eyebrows. Privacy groups
are bemoaning recent mergers from several online and offline profile miners,
arguing that, in tandem, mixed databases provide dramatically more detailed
portraits. In November, DoubleClick, by far the largest online data-mining,
ad-serving company, dropped $1.7 billion to acquire the offline market research
firm Abacus Direct, which maintains more than 80 million personalized consumer
profiles. Combining online and offline habits, privacy advocates feel, goes too
far.
"This merger is the most dangerous assault against anonymity on the Internet
since the Intel processor serial number,'' says Junkbusters President Jason
Catlett. "By synchronizing cookies with name and address from e-mail,
registrations and e-commerce transactions, the merged company would have a
surveillance database of Orwellian proportions."
Equifax, one of the country's three major credit reporting bureaus, announced
in February its $260 million buyout of Polk, whose demographics and lifestyles
data form one of the largest and most detailed psychographic databases in the
world.
Says Catlett, "Media are converging, and so should privacy standards. AOL
already gets a huge amount of personal information about the behavior of its
members, and this will greatly increase following the merger. That information
deserves strong legal protection, especially since AOL's record on privacy is
poor."
Corporations aren't the only database profiteers. Governments and
municipalities track us from birth to the grave with the ostensible aim of
practical record keeping and as an altruistic means to preserve national
security. But in "The End of Privacy," Sykes details how governments "are making
tens of millions of dollars selling public records to junk mailers and other
businesses." This means such official data as medical and pharmaceutical
histories, motor vehicle and IRS files, legal proceedings, and business dealings
are gathered and used for purposes unrelated to the original reason they were
obtained.
Unreasonable Searches and Seizures
While the right to privacy is generally regarded as a constitutionally
accepted doctrine, it is not explicitly stated in the Constitution; and legal
precedents only seem to extend the gray area. Supreme Court Justice Louis
Brandeis argued passionately for individual privacy, based on the penumbra of
rights laid out in the Fourth Amendment ("The right of the people to be secure in
their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and
seizures, shall not be violated") and Fifth Amendment (" ... nor shall private
property be taken for public use, without just compensation").
In Olmstead v. United States, a 1928 case concerning wiretapping and
government surveillance, the Supreme Court's majority ruled that wiretapping of
telephone conversations did not violate the Fourth Amendment, reasoning that
because wiretaps were placed outside the physical home, there was no government
intrusion, and therefore, no Fourth Amendment protection. Brandeis dissented:
"The makers of our Constitution ... sought to protect Americans in their beliefs,
their thoughts, their emotions and their sensations. They conferred as against
the Government, the right to be let alone--the most comprehensive of the rights
of man and the right most valued by civilized men."
Today, privacy groups are
divided on how to best ensure proper disclosure and assurance measures to protect
consumer privacy. Some groups, like the Electronic Privacy Information Center
(EPIC), feel the government should lead the way in establishing baseline
legislation. Others, like the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Electronic
Frontier Foundation--as well as (go figure) the marketing industry, favor
self-regulation, whereby sites would police themselves.
But EPIC's own survey of how the top 100 e-tailers handle consumer data shows
that the level of self-regulation thus far is hardly reassuring. Of the 100
sites, 86 used cookies to track click-throughs, while more than one-third
conducted profile-based advertising without clearly informing consumers.
The happy medium, backed by such groups as the Center for Democracy and
Technology and consumer activist Ralph Nader, calls for extensive privacy
policies that should conform to a government standard, complete with a sound
security infrastructure including user controls that allow consumers to opt out
of cookie placements and other passive data collection. This seems like the best
bet to safeguard personal liberties without stifling the Internet animal.
Even if you trust the intent and integrity of the people behind the sites you
frequent, and you happen to find targeted ads and tailored content a boon, your
information may still be at risk to security invasion. Internet users, in their
growing millions, have the collective power to impel change and push privacy
issues to the fore. Seek out sites offering sound privacy policies that give you
the option to conduct your business incognito, or that ask your permission to
share your online portrait with other profilers. Loyalty and repeat business to
these sites will send a message to the Internet community that fostering customer
relationships means more than a well-placed ad.
Writes Sykes, "The Net will realize its potential for hypergrowth only when
it resolves concerns over the privacy and security of information transmitted
through cyberspace. Privacy may be worth uncounted billions of dollars."
Jeff Barbian is ComputerUser's associate editor.
Sidebar:Take Control of Your Online Identity
In the movie "Enemy of the State," a subversive expatriate played by Gene
Hackman says, "The more technology you use, the easier it is to keep tabs on
you." In surfing the Web, simply logging on can pinpoint your geographic
location. Many companies that send junk e-mail are including ID tags encased
within a message that places a cookie on your hard drive. This potentially links
the cookie with your e-mail address that follows you to every site on an ad
network. Here are steps you can take to cover your tracks:
Enonymous.com has researched and ranked more than 30,000 sites based on
their privacy practices. Its recently launched site Privacy Ratings lists
all its four-star-rated sites--sites that never share personally identifiable
information with third parties.
Anonymizer lets you browse the Web using an intermediary
to prevent unauthorized parties from gathering your personal information.
Freedom, from Zero Knowledge Systems, sends Internet
traffic through a series of detours. Your identity and location are all protected
from prying eyes.
Cookie Central covers the ins and outs of where the
cookies crumble, including how to eliminate them from your Web diet.
The Internet Junkbuster claims to
disable 99 percent of cookies and banner ads. It's free software that you can
download, install and distribute.
For details on how to selectively accept cookies on Netscape and Internet
Explorer, go to Junkbusters.com.
Other sites fighting for your right to privacy:
Electric Privacy
Information Center
Center for Democracy and Technology
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Junkbusters
Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility.
