McMannis - Junkbusters has a SHORT attention span.
They are now going after Microsoft and Windows 2000.
Remember - Pentium III was last week's PUBLICITY STUNT for jUNKbUSTERS !
You'll need a new one too.
Paul
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newsalert.com
March 04, 1999 12:37
Junkbusters to Microsoft: No E-commerce Without E-privacy
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WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 4, 1999--
-- Privacy Advocate Warns of Compulsory Registration in Windows
2000, Criticizes Internet Companies' Failure to Deliver Real
Privacy Protection --
Junkbusters Corp. President Jason Catlett today released a report arguing that Microsoft's ability to coerce mass registration of personal information from users in Windows 2000 may threaten both consumer privacy and competitiveness. Documents released during the Microsoft trial indicate that the company is considering requiring periodic payment for Windows 2000, which would virtually compel users to identify themselves, and give the company an opportunity and economic incentive to treat consumers and competitors unfairly. The 2,600 word report is available at junkbusters.com on the Web.
Catlett also criticized Microsoft, its MSN division, and other electronic commerce sites for failing to provide the fundamental privacy protections that consumers need before they will be willing to participate freely and fully in the online medium. The privacy advocate said that industry-sponsored "seals of approval" such as TRUSTe and BBBOnline do not guarantee an adequate standard of privacy compared to the risks consumers take when they move their shopping and entertainment activities online, where they are being recorded in minute detail and kept forever. According to Catlett, "Consumers need to see more than just a warm and fuzzy seal on the corporate vaults that contain their personal information. They need to be able to examine what's inside so they can order the destruction of information that might harm them."
Catlett illustrated the importance of access to personal data by referring to Kenneth Starr's subpoena requiring a bookstore to disclose details of Monica Lewinsky's purchases.
"If she had bought online instead, the government investigators would have been given not only the titles of the books she bought, but also the reviews she looked at, the amount of time she spent looking at them, the keywords she searched for, and much more information than most people imagine would be recorded. Consumers need to be able to see all the information that companies keep on them, and to have it corrected or destroyed when they want." Many countries guarantee this as a legal right to their citizens, he added, but Washington lobbyists have so far succeeded in stopping Americans getting such rights.
"Because the industry has been free of even minimal requirements for privacy protection during the growth years of the Internet, they are now trying to convince the increasingly worried consumer that the sloppy standards on which the Web has been built are all that should be expected," Catlett continued. "Web browsers could easily be given a way to show each person what is stored about them in the huge marketing databases that personalization technologies are generating. But MSN and other portals are trying to convince consumers that just about the only interactivity they should expect from their profiles is filling out their own change of address forms."
Catlett said that the principle of access to personal data is one of eight internationally-recognized principles of "fair information practice." "Seal programs fall badly short when compared to the standards set down in 1980 by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. So the industry created its own conveniently low standards through groups such as the Online Privacy Alliance and the Direct Marketing Association."
Another important principle is openness, Catlett said. "Companies should disclose what they do with personally identifiable information. Because Microsoft's registration process links people to ID numbers, the company has a responsibility to inform the public about where those numbers go. The New York Times is not the place where you should discover that every Microsoft Word document you create has secretly been tattooed with your ID number," Catlett said, referring to yesterday's front page story. He called on the company to disclose whether Microsoft Windows reads and stores the Processor Serial Number from Intel's new Pentium III chip. If stored on the user's hard drive, it could be read by any program even if the number was subsequently switched off in the processor.
Catlett and other privacy advocates began calling for Microsoft to announce a commitment to fair information practices almost a year ago, when it acquired Firefly Network Inc. Firefly was best known for its "Passport" product, aspects of which appear to have been incorporated in MSN's recent offerings. Microsoft's record was criticized in November when Chairman Bill Gates promoted the Online Privacy Alliance. "The monopolists of the information age cannot be relied on to make decisions in favor of privacy when they have a huge economic incentive to exploit all the personal data they can collect. The bigger the company, the more comprehensive the profile they can build. Consumers should think about how much of their private lives go through computers, and ask themselves whether they want Intel inside their PCs and Microsoft in the middle of their business."
Junkbusters Corp. helps consumers defend themselves against intrusive marketing and protect their privacy online. At junkbusters.com the company provides extensive free resources for stopping telemarketing calls, unwanted physical mail, junk email, and commercial invasions of privacy on the Internet.
Junkbusters' News page contains a critique of Microsoft's record on privacy at junkbusters.com
Earlier press releases on this topic are at junkbusters.com and junkbusters.com
This document is junkbusters.com
CONTACT: The Krantz Group, Inc., New York Jeannette Boccini (212) 891-7234 jboccini@krantzgroup.com
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