October 17, 2001, 4:18 PM — "You have no privacy. Get over it."
--Scott McNeely, CEO, Sun Microsystems
It should be no surprise to anyone that privacy is a casualty of the online world. Even if you're not online yourself, your information is. Yet people demand privacy while happily giving their personal information to anyone with a free offer. The Pew Internet and American Life Project has published the results of a survey showing that most people in the US want companies to guarantee online privacy ("Survey: Most in US Want Companies to Guarantee Online Privacy," CNN.com, August 21, 2000: http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/08/18/privacy.report/index.html). People don't seem to realize that supermarket coupon cards provide more accurate purchase tracking than browser cookies -- or they don't care, as long as they can save a buck.
"Web Surfers Worry About Privacy, Take Few Steps," Andy Sullivan (Yahoo! News, August 20, 2000): http://dailynews.yahoo.com.
Don't get me wrong. I do care about my privacy, which is why I don't use supermarket coupon cards. I practice my own personal version of security by obscurity, not offering information if I don't need to. I have a firewall protecting my little network at home. We scan for viruses on the Windows machines, keep up with patches, and test suspicious software in an isolated environment. Who'd have thought that my little girl's Reader Rabbit software would compromise the privacy of my network? If you can't trust Reader Rabbit, you can't trust anyone.
You can't trust anyone
It seems that Mattel Interactive embeds Brodcast, a surreptitious program, in Reader Rabbit and other software titles. Brodcast sends encrypted data back to the parent company. We're expected to trust Mattel about the content of that data. Yeah.
"Privacy Worries Arise over Spyware in Kids' Software," Dana Hawkins (US News and World Report, July 3, 2000): http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/000703/nycu/privacy.htm.
To its credit, Mattel Interactive did make a utility available to remove the offending program (http://www.mattelsupport.com/broadcastpatch.asp). However, if Mattel really wanted to allay fears about data harvesting, it should have provided a decryption mechanism so that customers could view the data being transmitted.
The general public has demonstrated that online privacy is of great concern. US Federal Trade Commissioner Orson Swindle has warned the industry to either address privacy concerns or face government regulations.
"FTC Goes Public with Privacy," Declan McCullagh and Nicholas Morehead (Wired News, July 20, 2000): http://www.wired.com/news/politics/.
After all, it's an election year in the US and politicians love to campaign on popular issues that are hard to dispute. Clearly, the general public finds invasion of privacy distasteful, right?
Then why are television reality programs like Survivor so popular? Oh, that's right, privacy is a concern as long as it's my privacy. Let's unearth all the dirt we can on others. Want to know what your spouse or kids are doing online? You too can be a spy. Lew Koch discusses this disturbing trend in this masterfully-written article:
"I Spy, You Spy, We All Spy," Lew Koch (Inter@ctive Week, August 3, 2000): http://www.zdnet.com/intweek/stories/columns/.
We're accustomed to having no privacy at work, though. Dow recently took this to an extreme by firing 40 people for the contents of their email.
"Dow To Fire About 40 Employees" (Yahoo! News, August 22, 2000): http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap.
Yet this article suggests that companies should reconsider getting into the business of Big Brother:
"How To Spy on Your Employees," Jesse Bers (MSNBC.com, August 21, 2000): http://www.msnbc.com/news).
A friend of mine who recently spent time in the hospital having nasty things inserted into nasty places observed: "If I don't care about that, why should I care who knows my weight or preference in ice cream flavors?"
