Another privacy/filter angle...more food for thought

[Dan Lester]

The following from the source indicated in header below.  This
is a freebie daily "magazine" that comes in email.  And of
course their web site is indicated too.  Personally, I was
aware that the filter products didn't do much, if anything, to
keep people of any age from submitting private info.  And,
personally, I don't have any problem with people gathering
marketing info on me and mine, as it happens everyplace
else in your life (grocery, dept store, mail order, junk mail,
etc.) and my life is an open book anyway.  

Regardless of my beliefs and practices, the info in this could
be useful to many.  So, here it is, extracted and unedited
except for advertising removal.

dan

Subject: New Product Gossip of the Day [8/26/97]
Author:  gossip at tipworld.com at Internet
Date:    8/27/97 7:28 AM

TipWorld - http://www.tipworld.com
The Internet's #1 Source for Computer Tips, News, and
Gossip

Proudly presents:
Don Crabb: Crustacean-at-Large
---------------------------------------------- 
And now for today's gossip...

PROTECTING THE LITTLE CRUSTACEANS

When it comes to your kids using the Internet, you probably 
feel pretty safe if you've installed SurfWatch, Cyber Patrol, 
Cybersitter, Net Nanny, or other software that attempts to 
prevent your kids from navigating to unacceptable sites.
Crusty knows he feels his young claws are protected, at least
a bit, by these wares. This type of software, which blocks out
known  pornographic, profane, and violent sites, works by
restricting the URLs that your Web browser can access.

Unfortunately, though these products work, they can be
easily circumvented, both by your kids and by sites that play
on their natural curiosity. Even with the automatic site
updates that come with many of these programs, the simple
truth is that if your kids know anything about how your home
computer works (and trust me, they probably know much
more than you do), they can work around the site blockers.

Still, such software does help mom and dad when they aren't 
there to actively protect the kids. But what about your family's
privacy on the Net? Have you thought about that lately? Your
watery wayfarer guesses that you have not. Consider this
fairly benign scenario: Your kids have navigated to their
favorite spot on the Web--say a site that offers tons of info on 
dinosaurs. So far so good. No violence, no profanity, no 
pornography. Just good old' clean fun with T. Rex and his
pals.

About 30 minutes into the session, a pop-up form suddenly 
appears on the browser, generated by the dinosaur Web site 
(which, unbeknownst to you and your kids, is sponsored by
The Big Toy Company, or TBTC). The form asks your kids
some innocent questions about their favorite kinds of
dinosaurs, their favorite toys, that sort of thing. Still, no red
flags yet. Then the form asks for their names so they can get
personalized dino Web pages in the future. Still, nothing
seems out of order.

The problem is, your kids just gave TBTC a critical piece of 
data that can be matched up with other records (your ISP,
your site usage patterns, and so on). With this new
information, TBTC can further match your Web records with
the marketing information it buys from credit bureaus (like
TransUnion and Experian), direct marketers, and other large
vendors. By collating this material, TBTC can target your kids
for "special promotions"--either on the Web or via direct
mail--putting serious pressure on you to buy whatever it is
TBTC is trying to sell to your dinosaur-crazed kids.

Besides the obvious--telling your kids never to put personal 
information into a Web form--what can you do to prevent this?
Well, you might think your blocking software affords some 
privacy protection. Don't count on it. Both Net Nanny and
Cyber Patrol can be defeated by Crusty's five-year-old
(admittedly computer-savvy) tester. And though Cybersitter
can effectively block your kids from sending some personal
info via the Net, with a very small amount of ingenuity on their
part, those blocks can be run around as well.

As things currently stand, your best hope turns out to be your
most basic--sit down with your kids and explain why giving
out personal information over the Web can hurt them and the 
family. Then spend some quality surf time with them so that 
when Web sites or other Net software asks for personal data,
you can demonstrate how to maintain privacy.

As one concerned parent told Crusty, "I never realized just
how vulnerable we were until I spent half a day with my kids
surfing the Web."

****
The Crusty One's opinions are his own, and do not
necessarily 
reflect those of TipWorld's Editors, PC WORLD 
Communications, Inc. or IDG Communications, Inc.