AFFIRMATIVE-CONSUMER/INTERNET-SIGNIFICANCE 354

ONLINE INTRUSION STRIPS AWAY PRIVACY AND INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS

ONLINE COMMERCE IS USED AS A JUSTIFICATION FOR STRIPPING PRIVACY AND FREE SPEECH FROM THE INTERNET

Aaron Zitner, Globe Staff, The Boston Globe, March 19, 2000, SECTION: BUSINESS; Pg. E1 TITLE: MONEY MATTERS; THE NET AT WHAT PRICE? HARVARD LAW PROFESSOR WARNS PRIVACY, FREE SPEECH BEING SACRIFICED FOR PROFIT // acs-VT2001

Lessig's chief message is aimed at those who view the Internet as some kind of democratic wonderland, a place of unfettered free speech, business competition, and creativity. Set the euphoria aside, he warns. Government and industry are already stripping privacy, free speech, and other liberties from the Internet in order to suit the needs of online commerce.

"There is no reason to believe that the grounding for liberty in cyberspace will simply emerge," he said. "Quite the opposite is the case."

GIANT DATABASES ARE VULNERABLE TO INSIDE ABUSE

David Byrd, The National Journal, February 5, 2000; Pg. 412; TITLE: Making Crime Less Private // acs-EE2001

For Beth Givens, director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization based in San Diego, the real concern is insider abuse. "When you have such an enormous body of data at your fingertips, we know-it's frequently happened at the Internal Revenue Service, at the Social Security Administration-that it becomes highly tempting for someone to get into the data to check on a neighbor, or for a cop to check out the boy his daughter is dating," Givens says. "One good way to stop that is to have an electronic audit trail and have it accessed by a fingerprint reader."

CONUSMERS NEED THEIR INFORMATION PROTECTED FROM INTERNET PRIVACY INVASION

Todd Wallack, The San Francisco Chronicle JANUARY 11, 2000, SECTION: BUSINESS; Pg. C1 TITLE: Reno Talks Tough on Curbing Cybercrime // acs-EE2001

In addition to fighting cyber-criminals, the law enforcement officials meeting at Stanford University yesterday said they should do more to protect consumers against legal invasions of privacy over the Internet.

Many companies are collecting detailed information about what users do online, then selling the information to other marketers without permission. In most cases, this is legal.

CONSUMER DATA FILES ARE GROWING AND POSE A THREAT TO PRIVACY

USA TODAY January 31, 2000, SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 16A TITLE: Double privacy trouble // acs-EE2001

It's the latest step in a race to compile ever-larger consumer databases. As computer use has expanded, electronic dossiers have grown extraordinarily rich, to the joy of marketers, financial firms and health plans that can use the data to serve their own business needs.

The only real losers are those consumers who value privacy more, but who typically have little or no control over how all of these databases are assembled, coordinated or sold.