January 2, 2000
Web posted at: 3:23 a.m. EST (0823 GMT)

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From Correspondent Charles Bierbauer

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Internet shopping, Internet stock trading, Internet chat rooms, e-mail -- all seem to offer computer users a convenient way to conduct business from the privacy of home or office.

But in reality, privacy may end at the stroke of the keyboard: some computers are keeping tabs on their owners.

"In fact, they are leaving a trail that on such and such a day they looked at this book on sex in ancient Rome and they went to sex in the middle ages," said Professor Alan Westin, with Columbia University. "And after a while, there is a profile that is made up by the organizations they go to."

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Experts say privacy concerns may be the thorniest legislative and legal issues that lie ahead for Internet users.

"We have to have rules of the road if this is not to be a very dangerous thing," said Westin.

Internet sites collect vast amounts of personal data, much of it given voluntarily, like credit card numbers, addresses or income. Even some privacy advocates admit to giving away information.

"I give out my address to certain Internet places because I need something shipped to me. I don't have a choice," said Mark Rasch, of Global Integrity, an Internet security consulting group.

But much of our personal data is collected without our knowledge -- through something called a cookie -- a code of data strings hidden in computers.

The first batch of cookies was baked with a wholesome intent -- to make it easier for users to access their favorite Web sites. The site would hide a cookie with your name and, maybe a password, on your computer system. Then when you came back for a second visit, the cookie would allow the site to recognize you without going through a lengthy reintroduction.

Unfortunately, less scrupulous Web sites can use the same cookie technology to track users around the Web and gather detailed information about their interests.

"They sell it, and they make money off the personal information that I have given them," said Rasch. "And what we are recognizing now on the Internet is that personal information is commodity."

One way to regain privacy lies is through encryption -- putting all that personal information and communication into a secure code.

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But encryption also has a downside. U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno told the House Intelligence Committee last summer that terrorists can use encryption to hide their plans.

"In the future, we may wiretap a conversation in which the terrorists discuss the location of a bomb soon to go off, but we will be unable to prevent the terrorist act because we cannot understand the conversation which is encrypted."

Louis Freeh

FBI Director Louis Freeh argues the writers of the U.S. Constitution provided a framework for balancing the right to privacy with the government's need to know.

"The framers sitting in Philadelphia looked at the egregious powers the state would have to violate the privacy and looked at also the need to give the police the ability to protect citizens against crimes," said Freeh.

Courts are only beginning to deal with the dilemmas raised by the information revolution. The Supreme Court ruled two years ago that adults could exchange smutty material on the Internet, even though it may be offensive to some.

"It's not surprising that some things will be viewed as offensive or unpleasant or disagreeable, but that is also one of the characteristics of an open society," said Mark Rotenberg, of the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

The court now is considering whether states may make money selling data from drivers' license files. Those are just the implications for Internet users under U.S. law, but who really governs the Internet?

"If I am driving in France, I would be subject to French traffic laws," said Rasch. "If I am driving in Australia, Australian traffic laws. If I am driving the information super highway, you don't know whose laws apply."

Deciding which laws to apply and which nations should apply them will keep lawyers and Internet privacy advocates busy well into the new century.

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