Privacy Schmivacy

from the corporate-self-regulation-isn't-working dept

Someone at News.com takes a look at some of the new services out there that are set up to find out what people actually do online and concludes that corporate self-regulation of privacy issues doesn't work very well. Basically, the way it stands now (it seems) is that as long as the company tells you (in very small print surrounded by unreadable legalese) that they're going to watch everything you do online, then they can. These companies are trying to sell "clickstream" data to different sites to find out what people really do online. Some of the companies tie in to the ISPs, while others ask users to add a browser companion or some other script onto their own machines. However, they seem to capture everything that a user does - it's a self-installed Carnivore, basically. One company even admits that they use their system to check on the bank accounts of people who sign up to "verify" the info they provide on household income. That's scary.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    David, 16 Oct 2001 @ 3:07pm

    Privacy on Websites

    Bob Evans, from Information Week, posted an article in the InformationWeekBetweenTheLines eMail newsletter, that also says a lot of websites do not post privacy policies, because they may be sued if they don't adhere to their own privacy policies 100%. What an excuse to avoid the issue.

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.