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Privacy Sanity Check #301
The Internet Garbage Company
Cookies
by Ray Strackbein
Years ago, I moved across town. When I came to town a year earlier, no one noticed.
But when I moved, everyone noticed. I was bombarded with phone calls, junk mail, and unwanted sales visits. What happened? I had the same water, sewer, gas, electricity, and telephone company. Only the trash company changed. The trash collector sold my name to the world to make a little more money at my expense.
Shared Information (yours)
For decades, businesses have collected and shared information about people. Lonely? Make a donation, accept a telemarketing call, order from a catalog, or subscribe to a magazine and you will
be lonely no more. Hoards of companies will phone, send mail, and come to visit.
The Internet makes it easy for anyone to learn your personal information and to sell that information for a profit. That is why Internet users worry about cookies
-- a random code that web servers can put on your disk drive. Web servers and advertising companies then read their cookie as you visit other affiliated servers and sites, tracking your interests and habits.
Free, free, free
But cookies are not the real problem -- free services are the real privacy risk. You can get a lot of free stuff on the Internet: free e-mail, free phone calls, free
websites, free Internet service, and free searches, for example. None of it is private.
When you use the Postal Service to send paper mail, privacy is almost assured by federal law. When you place a phone call through a regulated phone company, the privacy rules of the Federal
Communications Commission apply.
I worked in the telephone industry for years. I heard a lot of phone calls as I fixed problems. I would love to tell you what I heard, but I won't. I risk going to prison if I do.
They're watching.
None of that applies to business. In most places, business are allowed by law (and in some cases have an obligation) to monitor what happens under their auspices. Businesses can monitor
conversations, keystrokes, and e-mail if you use their equipment. There are few rules against disclosure.
Providing free e-mail service is expensive, as is providing free Internet phone calls. Why do companies do it? To be generous? No. To make a profit.
So how can a company provide long distance phone calls cheaper than the telephone company -- even free Internet international long distance? They collect and sell information
. They can track every number you call. They might even be able to keep track of what you talk about.
Free e-mail, no privacy
It is much easier with e-mail.
If I provide a free e-mail service for you to use on the Internet, I can track everyone you exchange e-mail with. I can search your e-mail on my server for specific words, categorizing and selling what I learn.
Anyone -- any criminal: con-artist, rapist, or child molester (whether convicted or not) -- can create a "free" Internet service.
If I want your date of birth, addresses for the last 10 years, birth date, and Social Security number and other personal identifying information, I can advertise: "check to see if any state or business
owes you money". I can sell stuff and ask for your credit card number.
If I want your child's sex, age, and interest, I can set up a kid's site and track who visits the stuff of interest primarily to boys or girls of any age.
And it is a whole lot cleaner and easier than collecting garbage.
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There is no free lunch (or Internet service). Know the price of your "free service."
Copyright © Ray Strackbein
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