NEGATIVE-PRIVACY-SOLVENCY-GENERAL 122

PROTECTING PRIVACY ON THE INTERNET IS HOPELESS

YOU CANNOT PROTECT PRIVACY BY MERELY DISABLING INTERNET INFORMATION GATHERING

Dan Rosen, PC World, May 1, 2000 TITLE: Too Late! Privacy's Disappeared // acs-EE2001

Despite the ubiquity of companies and services that can track random surfers, your columnist Roberta Furger concludes, "it's your responsibility to... decide what information you're willing to share." So don't accept cookies, deselect all check-boxes that sign you up for mailing lists, and opt out of all databases.

While you're at it, avoid stores with security cameras and bar-code readers when buying food or clothes. Don't apply for a mortgage, a loan, or a credit card. Don't make a purchase over the phone. Don't use a cell phone, ride an airplane, or go to a movie. Don't go to college.

We are watched, counted, measured, and broken down into our constituent demographic bits daily in the real world, and we usually can't say no. To complain that it is happening online is pointless; to avoid it, just turn off your system.

ON THE INTERNET, THE BAD GUYS WILL ALWAYS BE AHEAD OF THE GOOD GUYS

K.K. Campbell, The Toronto Star, April 6, 2000, TITLE: OUT OF CONTROL? // acs-EE2001

CATCHING THE BAD GUYS: If the Net is inherently riddled with holes just waiting to be discovered, will the ''scoundrels in the wires," always be a step ahead of the cops?

''Definitely," says Stanton McCandlish, the communications co-ordinator and Webmaster for the Washington, D.C.-based Electronic Frontier Foundation (www. eff.org).

It has always been that way with crime, offline and online. ''However, improved network security will disable a lot of the methods used - just as better bank security has greatly reduced the incidence of back robberies."

THERE IS NO PRIVACY IN THE WORLD, BUT THE DIGITAL WORLD LETS US DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT

Piper Cole, director of global public policy for Sun Microsystems, USA TODAY, Friday, SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 14A TITLE: We take privacy seriously Web // acs-EE2001

The tension between sharing information and guarding privacy is not new, nor uniquely tied to the Internet. That was the substance of the comment Scott McNealy, Sun's chairman and CEO, made at the recent launch of Sun's revolutionary Jini technology: There is no perfect privacy in the off-line world; the advent of the digital world lets us do something about it.