23 June 1998

      Associated Press, JUNE 23, 02:08 EDT

      Clinton Calls Internet Privacy Meeting

      By TED BRIDIS
      Associated Press Writer

      WASHINGTON (AP) — To consider questions about how
      companies on the Internet are allowed to collect
      personal information from customers and what they can
      do with it afterward, critics and the online industry are
      meeting at an Internet privacy summit here.

      Companies and the government want to encourage the
      growth of fledgling Internet commerce while balancing
      the privacy rights of consumers. Industry wants to
      develop its own rules and punishments. Privacy
      advocates want the government to write tough new
      privacy laws — now.

      So far, the Clinton administration, wary of stifling
      business on the Internet with burdensome new laws,
      has indicated it will give companies more time to come
      up with ways to regulate themselves.

      ``They have their eyes closed and their fingers crossed
      that it will all work out,'' complained Jeff Chester,
      executive director of the Washington-based Center for
      Media Education. ``The administration has been on its
      knees pleading with American high-tech companies to
      come up with measures to protect online privacy, and
      they've been met with a loud chorus of denials.''

      The Internet can be a corporate candyland of personal
      consumer information. Customers routinely respond to
      questionnaires on Web sites, providing their names,
      e-mail and postal addresses and other personal data.

      Once a person provides identification to a Web site,
      companies can easily track which Web pages the person
      reads at that site.

      Buy anything on the Internet — or just fill out one of
      those innocent-looking forms on a Web site — and a
      company can learn a lot about you: what you read,
      what you wear, maybe even information about your
      health.

      Until a person provides an identity, only relatively
      innocuous information can be collected behind the
      scenes, such as which kinds of software the person uses.

      ``Once an individual gives over information, that can be
      tied to a whole bunch of data about what you've done at
      a Web site or at a whole bunch of Web sites,'' said
      Deirdre Mulligan, a lawyer with the Washington-based
      Center for Democracy and Technology. ``That might
      reveal your preferences, your taste in books, your taste
      in politics or in clothes. It gives people the ability to
      create dossiers unparalleled in the offline world.''

      On the eve of the privacy summit, scheduled to begin
      today, nearly 50 large companies that sell products on
      the Internet formed a trade group Monday to convince
      the federal government that industry can police itself
      against abuse.

      ``Think of it as an online neighborhood watch,'' said
      Christopher Caine, a vice president at IBM.

      The companies include America Online, AT&T, Disney,
      Equifax, Microsoft, Netscape, Procter & Gamble and the
      largest personal computer makers.

      They proposed that companies should not collect
      information online from any child under 13 without a
      parent's consent or without directly notifying parents.
      They also urged companies to tell customers what
      information is being collected and how it's used and to
      offer customers the chance to keep their personal data
      private.

      But, significantly, the Online Privacy Alliance did not
      announce how it will punish companies that violate its
      principles, saying its members ``are finalizing an
      enforcement and consumer redress policy.'' Caine said
      the group will announce its plan by Sept. 15.

      ``Ultimately it is the consumer who is going to vote,''
      said Mary Whelan, a vice president at AT&T. ``As
      people begin to understand how much information is
      collected about them, they'll begin to ask questions.
      That will drive how businesses will behave.''

    Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1998 20:51:12 -0700 (PDT)
    To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
    From: Michael Lamb <press@anonymizer.com>
    Subject: Anonymizer Represented At NTIA Privacy Conference

            Anonymizer, Inc.
            8415 La Mesa Bl. Ste. 3
            La Mesa, CA  91941
            United States of America
    	http://www.anonymizer.com

    F O R   I M M E D I A T E   R E L E A S E

    DATE:   22 June, 1998       Contact:    Michael Lamb
                                            (619) 220-8277

            Commerce Conference Addresses Net Privacy
    Anonymizer CEO Cottrell Helps Promote Technological Solutions

      San Diego -- Lance Cottrell, CEO of Anonymizer, Inc. will
    attend the conference on privacy hosted by the National
    Telecommunications and Information Administration, part of the
    U.S. Department of Commerce, this Tuesday and Wednesday in
    Washington, D.C.  As part of a panel chaired by reknowned
    privacy guru Esther Dyson and FCC deputy chief Elliott Maxwell,
    Cottrell will help address technological solutions to privacy
    problems on the Internet.  Interested media should contact
    Michael Lamb at (619) 220-8277.

      Technology, not legislation, should be the first line of
    defense for personal privacy on the Internet.  "Technologies
    like The Anonymizer allow the public to protect themselves
    against any attacker anywhere," says Cottrell.  "Legal solutions
    are difficult to enforce, and ineffective in the large fraction
    of the Internet outside our borders."

      Businesses which require customer information can join self
    regulatory groups such as TRUSTe, to earn the trust of
    customers.  Legal solutions do little to protect the privacy of
    users accross the Internet, while imposing significant burdens
    on small Web sites and requiring invasive monitoring by police.

      Lance Cottrell, an expert on Internet privacy and security
    issues, may be interviewed for print, television, radio and
    Internet media, and may be available for interview while in
    Washington D.C. at the conference.  Contact publicity manager
    Michael Lamb at (619) 220-8277 for details.

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