The Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington surveyed the top 100 cyber-shopping sites on the Web. The results will come as a surprise only to people who think online companies actually care about protecting consumers’ privacy.
In reality, abusing consumers’ privacy is an integral part of the standard e-business model these days. Posting a privacy policy that means nothing is only slightly better than not posting one at all.
As the report says: “Taken as a whole, we found that more sites are posting privacy policies than did when we conducted the first formal review of website policies in 1997. We have also seen the rise of new associations to promote the development of privacy policies and encourage industry awareness of privacy issues. But when we looked closely at these policies, we found that they typically lacked the necessary elements of Fair Information Practices and were unlikely to provide meaningful privacy protection for consumers. The presence of a privacy policy, unfortunately, does not always ensure privacy protection.”
More on eToy(s) and Domain Names
I took a shot at eToys the other day for its unfair treatment of a site called eToy. eToys, an online toy store, hasn’t been around nearly as long as eToy, an artist hangout, but that didn’t stop the retailer from suing to block the artists from using their domain name.
My advice remains: Don’t shop at eToys until it does the right thing, which is to back off its outrageous behavior.
Meanwhile, Network Solutions Inc., the domain-name monopolist that makes Microsoft seem gentle and kind by comparison, has blocked e-mail (Wired News story) to the eToy folks. Whether NSI had the right to do this is questionable, but hey, being a monopoly means never having to say you’re sorry.
The domain name system is broken. It’s a disaster area that Congress and the White House recently made worse with a new, “anti-cybersquatting” law that gives big businesses all the power they need to run roughshod over smaller entities in the domain-name space.
After I posted my first eToys piece here, I heard from two of the most thoughtful observers of the Net — and of technology in general — Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston. Their credentials? Well, they wrote VisiCalc, the first electronic spreadsheet, back in the late 1970s. That software, more than any other product, legitimized personal computers.
“The real problem,” Bob wrote, “is not whether trademarks get screwed up. It’s utterly clueless people getting involved in the glue that holds the net and, now, our economy, together. That’s the real danger! I’m less upset at eToys. The problem is those who have made .COM the gating factor in the universe! In fact, we should say that in 2006 all .COM addresses will be decommissioned and legacy URLs will have to be converted to a meaningless name. (Yes, I know that isn’t feasible). People can already use directories that reflect the complex realities of finding “Joe’s Pizza” and not be so focused on the convenience of BigCo’s establishing brand names and funding legacy television advertising.”Bob also sent a link to his essay on the subject.
Dan’s essay on the topic is equally interesting.
Let me know what you think.
Before the Fall
Boston Globe: High-tech paradise lost — a cautionary piece about Silicon Valley. Pay attention, folks. We’re sowing the seeds of our own decline around here.