Date: Tue, 12 Oct 1999 14:41:58 -0400 From: Gregory Piatetsky-Shapiro gps@ksp.com Subject: NY Times on Privacy and Data Mining Online New York Times (Oct 11, 1999) "Online Industry Seizes the Initiative on Privacy" article by Steve Lohr reports on the relative success of self-regulation by online companies in adopting privacy policies and the implications of those policies for data mining. In early 1999, a Georgetown University survey of some 360 heavily trafficked Web sites found that 66 percent gave users some notice of how they handled personal data -- significant progress from a year ago. But privacy advocates point to other numbers as evidence that self-regulation is failing. They note, for example, that the 1999 Georgetown survey also found that only 10 percent of Web sites included the four touchstones of what the FTC calls "fair information practices": notifying users of the sites' data collection practices; giving users a choice of opting out; giving them access to personal data; and assuring them that their personal data were secure. see http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/10/biztech/articles/11priv.html for the full articlee (registration required)
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