New Architect > Archives > 2001 > 08 > Strategy Product Review

Use Protection

By Charlie Cho

Consumers are encouraged not to think about privacy on the Internet, but rather to assume that the same rights to and levels of privacy extant in the offline world are present online. By default, there is no privacy. Passing data between computers means copying data, and copies can be stored. Most traffic is passed unencrypted, susceptible to eavesdropping by any number of devices placed throughout the Internet at points such as your ISP's upstream Net connection, major network exchange points, or at a corporation's Internet gateway. With modest effort and cooperation, any normal Internet traffic can be traced to its origin.

Worse yet, this lack of privacy is exploited to accumulate information about individuals' personal information and Internet habits. Ad banner networks exist to increase the breadth of sites through which profiling cookies can observe Internet users. Web sites offer content in exchange for personal information, ultimately selling or using the visitor data they collect for direct marketing campaigns. Web site operators' guarantees of user privacy are entirely voluntary and usually self-enforced.

SafeWeb SafeWeb