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PRIVACY ON THE INTERNET -- WHAT ARE THE
ISSUES?
Archiving
As a digital medium, the Internet has the ability to record and
archive our entire online existence, creating a permanent record of our
daily online activities. The Net is akin to a public forum, where what we
say instantly becomes public record, accessible to anyone who's
interested.
Email invites a feeling of casualness, encouraging us to write comments
to
friends or colleagues as if we were talking by the water cooler. These
messages, however, don't trail off into thin air like innocent office
chatter. They leave permanent digital records that can be catalogued and
later retrieved. In fact, this information can even be used by
individuals
to assume our identities and correspond online pretending to be us! Email
messages we send openly display who we are, who we're writing to and what
we're writing about. Whether an email contains confidential personal
information or a simple message to a friend -- we have a fundamental
right
to privacy that is being ignored.
Profiling
Our personal information is being collected all over the Internet.
One site might ask for your birthdate, another might ask where you
live while a third wants to know how much you earn. These little
requests for information often go unnoticed. What we don't realize,
however, is that behind the scenes, this information is pooled into large
databases by information aggregating companies -- some of which hold data
on over 176 million individuals and 96 million households. Combined with
your credit information, education history, medical records, census info
and more, the data is used to create eerily accurate profiles. These
profiles
are then made available to third parties that resell the information to
marketers and advertisers, often without our knowledge or consent.
The Inability To Separate Online Identities
In the physical world, we tend to act differently depending on the
situation we're in, who we're with, who's watching, etc. For example,
Susan
might act one way in a conversation with her friends, but completely
different in an interview with a potential employer. Both "identities"
are
really Susan, but the two are never related. Many people use the Internet
for a number of different activities. These different activities are
currently all related back to a single digital identity. Everything Susan
says or does online is automatically tied in to her actual
identity.
HOW DO THESE ISSUES AFFECT ME?
The dangers of archiving, profiling and identity on
the
Internet can lead to many things, including:
- Junk Mail (SPAM)
Details about what individuals do online are extremely valuable to
businesses seeking to target customers. Sophisticated technology enables
companies to track and analyze your browsing habits, including not only
what sites you visit, but the path you take through the site as well.
Your
profile is often bought and sold without your knowledge or consent,
resulting in a barrage of junk mail in your inbox.
- Discrimination
Let's say that your profile indicates that you are not a big spender
on long-distance services. The next time you call your long distance
carrier, you may end up on hold for what seems like an eternity, while
other, high-spending customers receive immediate responses.
- Accidental Disclosure
Imagine finding the results of your latest medical exam posted on the
Internet. Incidents of personal information being available to the world
are occurring with more regularity through negligence, hacker attacks and
human error. Website privacy policies are often limited in their scope or
sometimes not enforced at all. Companies you may voluntarily provide
personal
information to may re-sell that information without your knowledge or
consent.
- Misinformation
No database is immune to inaccuracies, and false information about
you
could damage your career and/or your reputation. Research you may have
conducted on smoking-related illnesses, for example, could mistakenly
imply
that you are a smoker or that you suffer from an ailment that could
affect
your job performance. Your employer or insurance company could then use
this misinformation against you.
WHAT ABOUT WEBSITE PRIVACY POLICIES?
With the growing public concern over Internet privacy,
many companies have put up privacy policy pages. These pages outline how
a
company gathers information about its users and what it does with that
information.
Unfortunately, there is no way of knowing if a privacy policy is being
enforced,
and even if it is, mistakes still happen:
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Recently, a major Japanese auto-manufacturer
mistakenly compromised the privacy of 24,000 of its customers. The
company had put up an opt-in email list on their website for consumers
interested in receiving information on new model releases. When they sent
the information out to eager potential customers, they accidentally cc'd
the addresses of each person on the list to each recipient - all
24,000!
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What if the opt-in list had been for new treatments for breast cancer or
alcohol abuse,
instead of information on new car models?
This is also an example of one way that spammers and other malicious
individuals can get
hold of your email address. This simple mistake can give a spammer not
only your email address,
but an idea of the income you earn, where you live, information about
your family, etc...
Even the best intentions can lead to disaster. Mistakes, similiar to
the one above,
are becoming all too common as companies scramble to manage the mountains
of
information they gather from consumers. While a privacy policy is an
important
first step in gaining consumer trust, their proper implementation needs
to be
carefully considered - the best privacy policy is meaningless if it falls
prey to
human error.
HOW CAN I PROTECT MYSELF AND MY FAMILY?
Zero-Knowledge Systems is proud to present Freedom -
the first product to provide Internet users with complete control of
their
online privacy by offering them the ability to create and manage multiple
digital pseudonyms (identities) for online communications. A digital
pseudonym lets you create a unique online identity for yourself (which
may
or may not be like your true self) that you can use to perform all your
Internet-related tasks. Freedom pseudonyms ("nyms") are email addresses,
ending in freedom.net, for example -- susan@Freedom.net.
Users can create up to 5 nyms for various Internet activities. For
example,
Susan might opt to create citizen@freedom.net, in addition to
susan@freedom.net,
which is used for regular correspondence . She uses the
citizen@freedom.net identity
to surf activist web sites, email her political contacts, chat in
political chat
rooms and post to political newsgroups and discussion lists. This enables
Susan
to actively participate in these forums without her political or social
views being
linked to her actual identity. With Freedom, Susan is able to benefit
from
the continued use of private identities, which are unique and persistent,
yet completely removed from her actual identity. No one - not even
Zero-Knowledge Systems - can find out who is behind a digital
identity.
WHAT UNIQUE PRIVACY PROTECTING FEATURES DOES
FREEDOM
OFFER?
- Private Web Browsing
Surf the Web on your own terms. Freedom prevents others from tracking
your online activities. It also associates your bookmarks and preferences
with your different digital identities.
- Total Cookie Management
Many web site place cookies (little bits of information) on your
computer to record and customize your visit. Freedom uses Cookie
JarsTM to sort the cookies your nyms receive on the Web.
Cookie
Jars manage and sort cookies according to their associated digital
identities,
preventing the accidental receipt of cookies that could compromise your
anonymity while maintaining all the benefits that cookies provide. Each
digital identity has its own Cookie Jar, and any cookie received by that
identity is collected in its individual jar. This way, your digital
identities remain completely separate from each other and from your real
self.
- Private Email
Using strong encryption, Freedom encrypts all your messages. No one
except the intended recipient will be able to read your messages (not
even
the government). In addition, Freedom scans your messages for personal
information and alerts you of potential security risks, greatly reducing
the chance of accidentally releasing private data - by you or your
children.
- Newsgroup Privacy
Similar to its email protection, Freedom allows you to participate
in newsgroup discussions, knowing that your true identity remains
private.
- Private Chat
Since Freedom protects all your Internet communications, chatting is
now a private affair. Your Internet activities are linked to specific
digital identities, so you can be confidant knowing that you can chat
privately without compromising any personal information.
- Private Telnet
By removing all identifying information from outgoing data packets,
including your IP address, Freedom enables you to privately use any
Telnet-based bulletin system.
- Eliminate Spam
Unsolicited commercial email (also known as spam) is a constant
source
of irritation to millions of Internet users. Freedom has advanced
spam-filtering tools so you can filter out unwanted, spam sent to your
pseudonyms. When enabled, Freedom's anti-spam functions virtually
eliminates unwanted bulk email before it even gets to your mailbox.
- Digital Certificates
A digital certificate serves as the electronic equivalent of your
signature when you send documents across the Internet. It lets you
digitally "sign" a message so that the recipient can be sure the message
came from you, and not someone pretending to be you.
The Hacker News Network
realizes that online privacy is one of our customers' main concerns. To
address these concerns, we have affiliated ourselves with Zero-Knowledge
Systems, makers of Freedom -- an Internet privacy software solution that
prevents your personal data from being revealed without your knowledge or
consent. To download Freedom now, please click here:
Freedom Download
For more information on how you can take advantage of
the Freedom solution, please click on the link below:
Freedom Information
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