Seeking Privacy Online, Even as Security Tightens

[R. A. Hettinga]

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/11/technology/11SOFT.html?todaysheadlines=&pagewanted=print



November 11, 2001


Seeking Privacy Online, Even as Security Tightens


By JOHN SCHWARTZ


Consumer privacy is getting a squeeze on all sides these days.

In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks, a new federal law expands the
government's powers on wiretapping and electronic monitoring. At the same
time, proposals to develop tougher privacy standards for online businesses
and to give federal regulators greater power to enforce those standards
have stalled.

For many people, increasing the power of the federal government is an
acceptable trade-off; they are willing to give up a measure of privacy in
return for better security, especially in the online realm.

A Harris Poll released last month found that 63 percent of Americans
favored the monitoring of Internet discussions and chat rooms (32 percent
were opposed), and 54 percent said they favored expanded monitoring of
cellphones and e-mail. The message of the poll is "proceed, but with great
care and with adequate safeguards," said Alan F. Westin, a professor
emeritus of public law and government at Columbia University, who helped
write the survey.

Yet the interest of many consumers in protecting their privacy, from both
government and private companies, appears to be unabated.

Rick Parker, 54, an insurance executive from the Los Angeles suburb of
Panorama City, said he was probably more aggressive than most Internet
users in protecting his privacy online. "I lock the doors on my house and
use a deadbolt," he said. "This protection is essentially the same thing
for electronic data."

The measures Mr. Parker takes show the range of what less-determined
consumers can do. He uses firewall software, which monitors and filters
Internet communications, to make sure that he is not inadvertently sending
out personal information, and he is careful to remove evidence of his
visits to Web sites.

For starters, he controls "cookies," the small data files that Web sites
place on a visitor's hard drive. While most sites use cookies to make Web
surfing more convenient by recalling where a visitor has been on the site,
they can also be used to track a visitor's wanderings. Mr. Parker uses a
program named AdSubtract to limit his cookies and to limit material that he
finds annoying, like pop-up advertisements. Like many products, the basic
software can be downloaded free, while feature-rich versions can be
purchased for less than $100. The software is relatively easy to install
from the Web site (www.adsubtract.com).

Mr. Parker also uses Ad-aware to look for "spyware," which many software
companies employ to monitor the activities of users. The information is
often sent back to the home office, sometimes surreptitiously, over the
Internet. "If I want to give someone permission to do a market survey of
what I buy or see, that's one thing," he said. "It's quite another to do it
without my knowing or consenting."

For Mr. Parker, privacy and security go hand in hand. He maintains that it
is nobody's business what he does online. Like most users, he has
occasionally stumbled, by typing an Internet address incorrectly, into a
site with pornographic images, and he said he hates to think about what an
investigator might make of information like that.

As concerns over online privacy have risen, so have the number of privacy
software products. It is not an especially lucrative business - in no small
part because many tools exist that consumers can download free. Also, few
consumers have been willing to go to great lengths to protect their privacy.

But companies are reporting a surge in interest lately. Despite the
business lull after Sept. 11, "we've just had the most successful quarter
we've had on record finishing September," said Ed English, the chief
executive of interMute, which produces the AdSubtract software.

What follows is a sampling of some popular software packages and other
tools that consumers can use to keep prying eyes off their communications
and data.

CUTTING COOKIES Managing cookies is the first step in taking charge of
privacy. Some tools for controlling or limiting the number of cookies that
are placed on computers are available in the most popular Web browsers.

In Microsoft (news/quote)'s browser, Internet Explorer 5, for example, the
controls for cookies can be found by pulling down the Tools menu, opening
Internet Options and clicking on the tab marked security. Users can then
decide whether they want to block all cookies (which can make many sites
inaccessible), or block only certain kinds of cookies, like those coming
from advertisers on a Web site. In the latest version of Explorer, known as
IE6, Microsoft has introduced a technology known as P3P, an abbreviation
for platform for privacy preferences; that technology will, if it catches
on, allow the browser to read and judge the privacy policies of
participating sites. The P3P software can detect and compare users'
preferences for privacy protection with the policies on each Web site and
warn them if they are in conflict. Trouble is, few sites have so far
created privacy policies that can be read by the P3P software.

BLOCKING THE ADS Many consumers get cookie-cutting tools within products
that help control the ads that pop up. AdSubtract helps users block ads and
manage cookies, while Ad- aware (www.lavasoftusa.com) from Lavasoft detects
and blocks spyware from sending information back to Web companies. Other
Web sites are more specific: Bugnosis (www.bugnosis.org) identifies the
invisible cookies, known as Web bugs, that can be placed without the user's
knowledge, and is available from the Privacy Foundation, a research group
at the University of Denver.

SCRAMBLING FOR PRIVACY Going farther to protect privacy, consumers can buy
or download programs to encrypt mail or data. The best- known consumer
product in the field is PGP (www.pgp.com) from Network Associates
(news/quote). Similar products are available from companies like Sigaba
(www.sigaba.com), and Hush Communications (www.hush.com).

BECOMING ANONYMOUS Several products allow users to wander without
identifying themselves, including Anonymizer.com and Triangle Boy
(www.safeweb.com) from SafeWeb.

BURGLAR ALARMS When people think of firewalls, they think of them as tools
for stopping hacking and viruses. They can protect privacy, especially in
the face of spyware. These products are common in business, but consumer
versions of the technology are available in products like ZoneAlarm
(www.zonealarm.com) from Zone Labs and Network Ice (www.networkice.com)
from Internet Security Systems (news/quote) (www.iss.net).

ALL IN ONE Companies that provide Internet security products understand
that consumers also want privacy and increasingly tools like cookie
controls, ad blocking and firewall protection are included in big packages
like Norton Internet Security, from Symantec (www.symantec.com), which
retails for $69.95. Zero-Knowledge Systems (www.zeroknowledge.com) offers
privacy protection tools in its flagship product, Freedom 3.0, which costs
$49.95.

KEEPING UP Several Web sites provide information about privacy and ways to
protect it. Organizations like the Electronic Privacy Information Center
and the Center for Democracy and Technology, two groups in Washington, have
privacy information and resources on their sites (www.epic.org;
www.cdt.org).

Information can also be found on other sites, www.privacyrights.org,
www.privacyfoundation.org and www.privacytimes.com. Some sites offer
privacy protection products, including perfectlyprivate.com.

Mr. Parker, the insurance executive, admits to a touch of paranoia in
protecting his privacy. "O.K., so I read too many Tom Clancy novels," he
said. But he added that he took comfort in knowing that the government was
looking to many of the security and privacy technologies he was interested
in in gearing up to fight cyberterrorism.

"That's exactly why we have a major military command dedicated to both
offense and defense in this area with a major emphasis on offense," he
said. A little paranoia, it seems, might not be a bad thing. 

Home | Back to Technology | Search | Help 	Back to Top

Click Here to Receive 50% Off Home Delivery of The New York Times Newspaper.


Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company | Privacy Information
-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'



---------------------------------------------------------------------
The Cryptography Mailing List
Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to majordomo at wasabisystems.com