untangling_the_web

DOClD: 4046925
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Internet Privacy and Security-Making
Yourself less Vulnerable in a Dangerous
World
The problems with Internet privacy and security are getting steadily worse, not
better, each year as technology to collect information surreptitiously and attack
computers at will steadily improves and proliferates. To make matters worse,
malicious attacks are not the only or even the most common ways personal data is
gathered, stored, and used. Businesses routinely collect information and, in some
cases, share it without users' knowledge or consent. By now most Internet users
know they are inadvertently giving out information about themselves every time they
naviqate the Internet. However, it is almost impossible for anyone to have a clear
idea exactly what information is being unwittingly provided.
Part of the problem stems from one of the seemingly inviolable rules of progress that
applies doubly so to the Internet:
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Major computer companies have recognized this trade-off for years, though rarely
will they openly discuss it. In an unusual instance of candor, a Microsoft executive
admitted that one of the features in Internet Explorer is a good example of this
axiom. Speaking of userdata persistence (more on what this is later), Michael
Wallent said, "this feature has a trade-off, like almost every other feature on the
web-in this case, between functionality and a minor, potential privacy
exposure.t" [emphasis added]
161 Paul Festa, "IE Feature Can Track Web Surfers Without Warning, " CNET News , 11 September
2000, (14 November 2006) .
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