NEGATIVE — CONSUMER/INTERNET — SIGNIFICANCE� 399

P3P SOFTWARE CAN PROTECT PRIVACY

SOFTWARE USES P3P PROCEDURES TO PROTECT PRIVACY

Leslie Miller; Elizabeth Weise USA TODAY, March 31, 1999, SECTION: LIFE; Pg. 4D TITLE: Keeping 'pry' out of the privacy debate New tools help consumers protect personal data from an encroaching Web // acs-EE2001

AT&T Labs-Research is working on a similar product, called Privacy Minder, based on a standardized information-exchange protocol called the Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P), now in development by the World Wide Web Consortium, the international standard-setting body for the Web. Other companies also are working on P3P-based products.

"P3P is designed so Web sites can communicate about what their privacy policies are, and users can configure their browsers with their preferences," says Lorrie Cranor of AT&T Labs-Research, co-chair of the consortium's P3P group. "Users don't want to stop at every Web site and read privacy policies," so P3P will do it, "looking for things that are important to them."

THE P3P OFFERS GOOD PRIVACY PROTECTION TO INTERNET USERS

Neil Weinstock Netanel, Arnold, White & Durkee Centennial Professor of Law, University of Texas School of Law, March 2000; California Law Review, "Cyberspace Self-Governance: A Skeptical View from Liberal Democratic Theory," EE2001-hxm lxnx

The cyberians' second proffered solution would avoid both transaction costs and third-party agency costs by employing electronic agents rather than human ones. It would rely on the Privacy Preferences Project (P3P) software standard, being developed by the World Wide Web Consortium. n343 Using P3P, Internet users will be able to encode their  [*479]  privacy preferences into their browser, and web site operators will be able to include their privacy policies in their site servers. n344 The result will be machine-to-machine communication and, possibly, negotiation, without a person getting involved at either end. n345 For example, I might set my browser to provide that site operators may collect information regarding my site visits and use it to personalize my successive visits, but may not transfer that information to other sites, except for the purpose of offering me books or CDs to my liking at a discount price or unless I am paid $ 200 in cash. If a site's stated privacy policies meet those specifications, my browser will enter the site. If not, it will either notify me or, more probably, simply bypass that site altogether.

PLATFORM FOR PRIVCY PREFERENCES (P3P) COULD ALLOW ONLINE CONSUMERS TO PROTECT PRIVACY AT BA LEVEL THEY CHOOSE

SIMSON GARFINKEL The Boston Globe January 6, 2000, SECTION: BUSINESS; Pg. C4 TITLE: PLUGGED IN / PROTECTING YOUR PRIVACY CONCERNS ABOUT THIRD-PARTY MONITORING PUTTING A DAMPER ON E-COMMERCE // acs-EE2001

An alternative to these English-language policies is for companies to use some kind of unambiguous computer language to describe their privacy practices. You then could program your computer to download automatically the privacy policy for every site you visit and warn you if the site's policy offends your sensibilities.

That's the idea behind the World Wide Web Consortium's Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) project. Beyond screening out Web sites that refuse to respect your privacy, the system also can transfer your personal information to Web sites that you deem acceptable. For example, some Web sites won't let you browse their pages unless you provide them with your name, e-mail address, and zip code. With P3P, you could program your computer to automatically provide this information if the site met your privacy criteria.

There's been a lot of industry support behind P3P, with public testimonials from AOL, IBM, Microsoft, Netscape and others. It's quite possible that this technology will be built into your Web browser before the end of the year.

P3P IS A SYSTEM FOR MATCHING PRIVACY POLICIES UP WITH THE NEEDS AND DESIRES OF INDIVIDUALS TO PROTECT THEIR PRIVACY

John J. Fried, The Ottawa Citizen, March 20, 2000, SECTION: High Tech Report; D3 TITLE: Privacy protection becoming a priority: A ubiquitous Internet threatens to snag more personal information // acs-VT2001

With this in mind, the World Wide Web Consortium -- an industry group that promotes standards for the Web and encourages the development of technology -- is championing the Platform for Privacy Preferences, or P3P.

The idea behind P3P, which has drawn support from Microsoft, America Online Inc., AT&T Labs, Sony Corp., among other firms, is simple:

In addition to spelling out their privacy policies in run-of-the- mill English, Web sites will write the policies in a software code developed under the P3P project.

Browsers, such as Internet Explorer or Navigator, will have their own version of P3P, capable of reading policies written in P3P. Moreover, users will be able to configure P3P to look for various levels of privacy protection afforded by Web sites. When users with P3P-enabled browsers land on a Web site, the browser will warn them if the site does not have a P3P component or if policies do not meet the criteria set by the users.

''When you get to a site that matches, nothing will happen, or you will get a symbol to show that everything is OK,'' says Lorrie Cranor, an AT&T researcher and one of the organizers of an industry meeting on freedom and privacy scheduled next month in Toronto.