You've been warned - Internet security issue - Internet/Web/Online Service Information - Brief Article

Software Magazine, Oct, 1997 by Deborah Radcliff

Can you keep personal information posted On the Web from becoming public fodder?

Tucked behind the happy Jelly Belly Web site is a tongue-in-cheek disclaimer. Point number four reads: "If you don't want the world to know something, don't post it on the site in any survey, form, bulletin board or anyplace else. That's because anything you disclose to us is ours."

As marketing departments wake up to the demographic gathering capabilities of the Web, many are asking Webmasters to install monitoring devices, such as cookies or tokens sent by the Web server to the visitor's browser, which identify and track visitors. Other increasingly common strategies include incoming E-mail address traps, programs that track activity before, during, and after a Web site visit, and demographic-grabbing templates.

But companies like jelly bean manufacturer Jelly Belly are beginning to appreciate the value of warning visitors about monitoring tools and are acknowledging privacy concerns. "There's a lot of consumer anxiety over the fact that, with the hit of an enter button, personally identifiable information can be shot to tens of thousands of people across the Inter net," says Susan Scott, executive director of TRUSTe, a nonprofit Internet regulatory agency based in Palo Alto, Calif.

Backed by the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation and leading software vendors, TRUSTe wants to nurture consumer confidence though a Web site evaluation and logo akin to an electronic Good Housekeeping seal. A TRUSTe seal on a site means the site is being policed by TRUSTe to ensure that personally identifiable information is being used the way the Web site says it is.

With President Clinton's "hands-off" approach to laws governing global electronic commerce, privacy issues must be self-enforced. "IS people should not become the police," says Tim Wild, vice president of Internet programs for Tandem Computers. "They should implement what's requested of them and raise questions to their legal people."

The key issue is disclosure--telling visitors exactly what's being done with personal information. Jelly Belly, for example, wastes no words. The company's online privacy disclosure begins: "When you provide us with your name, address, and E-mail address, this information... will not be sold or rented for any reason." While Jelly Belly leaves its options open as to what it will do with the information, at least it advises visitors not to volunteer personal data if they're worried about its future use.