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Here's our lineup this fourth week of July:


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Net user privacy: Help for users

There has been plenty of buzz lately about consumer privacy on the Internet, with coverage of…

Given all that, we wondered two things: Is there any clear, cut-and-dry information for busy consumers who want to protect themselves? and Do consumers have any recourse?

Fortunately, with a campaign launched this week called "The Privacy Partnership 2000," the answer to both questions is "yes." Not an unequivocal one, but almost. When the campaign people first contacted us we were, frankly, a little skeptical about whether or not there was going to be much substance to this latest iteration of the Partnership. So we were pleasantly surprised to find that TRUSTe (the privacy advocacy group leading the campaign) and its corporate partners are delivering something truly useful to people like us.

On the preventative side of the consumer privacy equation, the Partnership offers easily digestible guidelines for protecting a family's privacy online. They tell us, for example, that:

On the remedial side of the equation, users are beginning to have recourse now. The TRUSTe "Watchdog" is a place on the Web where an individual can register a complaint if he feels his personal information, including credit card numbers, has been misused. If the Web site being complained about is part of the TRUSTe privacy seal program (and most of the Web sites the average user visits are), TRUSTe says it will act on that complaint and look into whether its member is not complying with seal-program requirements. If it finds the site in violation, TRUSTe says it will force the Web site to change its business practices or privacy statement, delete the user's personal data, refer the case to the Federal Trade Commission for legal action, or all of the above. Complaints can be filed in a form right in TRUSTe's Web site - the Watchdog page.

TRUSTe can't necessarily redress what happened to the user, but it can do something to fix its member-sites' practices. It was TRUSTe that actually initiated the FTC's lawsuit against Toysmart.com (see the news links below), TRUSTe says. An individual can also file a complaint directly with the FTC about any Web site, whether or not it's a member of the TRUSTe seal program. Here, too, the FTC can't act on all complaints and it can't act on behalf of an individual, but - when it sees a number of complaints against a single Web site - it can file suit against that site, FTC attorney Toby Levin told us. "We act on behalf of the public interest," Ms. Levin said, "not on behalf of the individual."

[BTW, Levin clarified something for us: The law, she said, does not require a Web site to have a privacy statement - unless it's targeting children under 13. It only requires a Web site to abide by its privacy statement if it has one. That's where the TRUSTe program comes in. Through the seal program, the organization provides an incentive - consumer trust, which translates into traffic - for Web sites to publish privacy statements.]

The bottom line is, if a consumer feels her privacy has been abused by a Web site, if she's right, and if her goal is to have that site change its practices (not to win a large sum of money in a lawsuit against the site), it would be worth her while to file complaints with both TRUSTe (if the site's a TRUSTe member) and the FTC. If her child's privacy is being abused by a site for children, especially if it doesn't have a privacy statement, there is even more reason to get word to the FTC. Lots of "ifs"! Still, there are signs of progress in online consumer privacy.

Another sign is a bill, just introduced this week by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), which would add that missing piece FTC attorney Levin mentioned: a law requiring sites to have privacy statements. According to Reuters (via Yahoo! News), Senator McCain's legislation requires Web sites to disclose what they do with personal data collected from visitors, and it requires them to tell visitors how they can limit that use. (Here's CNET on the story.) That's just the latest activity in the US Congress. For a picture of privacy-protection efforts on many fronts, see just below.

If you have any questions or comments on the above, do send them in - via feedback@netfamilynews.org. We appreciate parents' and teachers' perspectives!

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Privacy in the news

For more information, here's a roundup of just the latest stories on this subject:

Industry-government deal: The Network Advertising Initiative, representing 90% of the online-advertising industry, announced Thursday that it had struck a deal with the FTC and Commerce Department that was a year in negotatiation. According to Reuters (via Techweb.com), the "self-regulatory" measure bars Internet firms from using visitors' medical or financial data, Social Security numbers, and online sexual behavior to determine which ads to flash on their computer screens.

Surfer profiling by government: The US House of Representatives moved this week to crack down on government Web sites collecting user data. Here's an Associated Press report (via USAToday) on an amendment the House passed this week.

Toysmart.com & user data: There was heavy coverage of the e-tailer going bankrupt and trying to sell its database of customers' personal information, including a report by CNET and ZDNet. Later ZDNet reported, "FTC to let Toysmart.com sell customer list", but that was before the FTC made a statement that it had found Toysmart.com in violation of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act as well as of grownups' privacy, CNET reported.

No taste for "Carnivore": The US House of Representatives peppered the FBI this week with questions about its email surveillance system. Here's TheStandard.com's report. Here's a ZDNet opinion piece on "Why the Feds want into your [email] Inbox." In "Trust Us, We're the Government," TheStandard.com checked out what fellow media outlets were doing with the Carnivore story (they "ate it up"!). Here's the latest, in USAToday, on Attorney General Reno's statement that she won't suspend the surveillance program while it's under review. Across "the Pond" it's a different story: On Wednesday Britain's House of Commons was expected to pass a bill to give police and security services access to private email messages, according to Reuters (via Wired News).

Another privacy launch/milestone this week: The Denver-based Privacy Center, a research group that will study the impact of various technologies on individuals' privacy, got down to business. It will be funded by another brand-new organization, the Privacy Foundation, according to the New York Times.

Hard data: Here's research at eMarketer.com on how the top shopping sites are really handling our privacy.

The consumer's perspective: A New York Times analysis, "Contradictions Abound in Public Concerns over Net Privacy".

For yet more: An index of New York Times coverage of "Privacy in the Digital Age."

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Web News Briefs

  1. Music-swapping milestone

    If your kids love music, this week's Napster news may have quite an impact on them - especially if they're among the some 20 million people who use Napster.com to find and share tunes with other Web users. In a surprise decision in the recording industry's case against Napster, this week US District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel ordered that Napster.com be temporarily shut down, according to ZDNet. That happens at midnight tonight (Friday, 8/28), PDT. She was granting a request by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for an injunction against Napster. Apparently, she agreed with RIAA arguments that the song-swapping service is "a haven for piracy and copyright infringement," as ZDNet put it. Napster has asked the court to stay the injunction and has said it will appeal. Don't miss comments from readers (and Napster users) on the decision in "Talkback" at the bottom of the ZDNet article. Here's Wired News's story on Napster users' reactions.

    There's also nothing final about this for avid music-swappers. Alternatives to Napster - such as Napigator.com, angrycoffee.com, and Gigabeat.com - are ready and waiting, ZDNet reports. Clearly, Napster is only the beginning for the RIAA's lawyers!

  2. A World Wide Web

    Research by Internet company Cyveillance this month found that the World Wide Web now has more than 2 billion unique, publicly-accessible pages, and that number will double by early next year. The study, which showed a growth rate of 7 million pages per day, found that "the Internet's highest growth rate is still to come." About 85% of the pages are hosted in the United States. Our thanks to the USIIA Bulletin (US Internet Industry Association) for its report on the study. Here's Cyveillance's press release.

  3. Less growth in usage, however

    Other research shows, though, that time spent on the Web is actually decreasing. This year Americans are spending 1% less time online than they did in 1999, according to a new study by Fairfield Research, cited by Media Life. "This looks like a particularly screeching sort of halt, given that in 1999, Americans spent 274% more time online than they had in 1998, according to Fairfield."

  4. Very connected rural schools

    At least in the US's Midwest, rural schools are far from isolated, according to new research. They're "leading the nation in the use of technology to connect classrooms to the nation and the world," reports the New York Times. An independent survey by Market Data Retrieval rated Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, and several other Midwestern states "among the top 10 in the nation in terms of 'technology sophistication'."

    As for homes in the rural US, a company called Pegasus Communications has announced it will be offering broadband Internet access to rural households by the 4th quarter of this year. That's according to Wired News.

  5. E-book & the honor system

    Horror writer Stephen King's latest novel is most chilling to the publishing industry, according to ZDNet. He's selling the first installment of "The Plant" directly to readers (bypassing a publisher) by posting it on his own Web site. Interestingly, payment is by honor system. Readers can download the text first, then go to Amazon.com to pay. ZDNet reports that about 78% have paid so far. In his Web site, King tells his readers they have to pay $1 if they want him to put the full story on the site. There's a cliffhanger for ya!

  6. Very popular free Net service

    Altavista is looking at a very successful first year for its free Internet service, having signed up 3 million "customers" so far. According to CNET, critics are saying some of those users are signing up and never coming back - as is happening with free email services. And the Associated Press reports (via Yahoo! News) that free access provider NetZero is "revamping."

  7. New home computer

    Internet Product Watch this week alerted us to the arrival on the market of a very economical "Internet-oriented" computer for the home. IPW says the GlobalPC is "full-featured" - wold with word-processing, spreadsheet, home-banking software and an address book, a calendar, games, and Internet and e-mail access capability - and supremely easy to set up. If any of you buy it, let us know how you like it.

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A subscriber writes: JWIAF.com & not-so-safe search

Subsciber Christina in Virginia checked out the "Just What I Asked For" directory - one of the family Web resources we told you about last week - and had a good point to make. She tested the Google search window at the bottom of JWIAF.com's home page by searching for sex sites and got four on the first page of results. Her conclusion: "They shouldn't offer this search if they say the site is 'safe' for children."

We appreciate her making this point. What we should've mentioned in our report is that only the JWIAF directory itself can be considered a family resource - not the search gening JWIAF provides for further research (they're following the Yahoo! directory's example; Yahoo! uses Google too).

Few search engines on the Web are child-safe - with the exception of Ask Jeeves for Kids and Go.com and Lycos.com. And the latter two are only for children if parents turn on Go's "GoGuardian" and Lycos's "Parental Controls," which are links just below the search boxes on both home pages.

Thanks to all subscribers who send in useful comments!

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Self-help for parents, teens, couples, seniors

Hardly anyone's left out at WholeFamily.com, home page to an entire suite of self-help sites. The focus is on improving and supporting relationships with information, hotlines, advice from psychologists, chat, "radio," "crisis centers," and other resources for various interest communities: parents, couples, teens, and seniors. Founder and CEO, Dr. Michael Tobin, sees his award-winning Web service as "a vehicle for family conflict resolution." Your views on this or any site we tell you about are always welcome! Just email us.

On the spiritual side of self-help, a new site called MyPotential.com is scheduled to arrive on the cyberscene in September. Spearheaded by Deepak Chopra's 20-something daughter, Mallika Chopra, it is already being called "the Internet's most ambitious spiritual-lifestyle Web site."

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That does it for this week. Have a great weekend!

Sincerely,

Net Family News

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