Internet Privacy©

by: Thomas P. Herrod

Copyright© 2000 - 2001

pri•va•cy \"pri-ve-se\ n, pl -cies 1 : the quality or state of being apart from others 2 : SECRECY

Privacy is secrecy, and not public.

These words have powerful meaning to some, and not so powerful to others, but one thing remains, EVERYONE is entitled to privacy. Wether it is some personal time, to not giving out your personal information via the Internet, to protecting your credit cards and social security number, to any other dealings with your personal life that you choose not to make public. Some things are meant to keep private, while other people make it their job to get that personal private information, and distribute it, in any way, shape or form, for THEIR PROFIT, AND NOT YOURS. Since when does your personal information become public when you want it private as it should be? ANSWER: When you took it upon yourself to enter the world of the Internet, your privacy rights were tossed out by the proverbial Internet Waste Baskets we call: Advertiser/Third Party Marketing Engineers. This term might offend some people in the advertising sector, but they forget: Even they are targeted by their own privacy violation inventions, in some way.

Since the dawning of the Internet, advertisers have tried to muscle their way into your computer in order to compete with their rivals, at the expence of your privacy and personal habits that you make via the Internet, in order to beat the competition. Most of this is done by means not known by you, and your computer is giving out information that you might not be aware of, including your private information to be Cropped: term used to describe that your personal habits/information has been stolen from you via your computer connected to the Internet, whithout your prior knowledge or consent, by a third party program included with the legit program in order to get this information and call back to it's computers for uploading, storage and possible sale, to Browser version snooping, programs that you have on your system, and any other information that your browser is willing to give out via other means. Some browsers and e-mail programs might include these programs and supported features:

XML: http://msdn.microsoft.com/xml/default.asp

ActiveX: http://www.microsoft.com/com/tech/activex.asp

JAVA: http://www.java.sun.com

Cookies: http://www.cookiecentral.com

Scripts & Applets - Used with XML, ActiveX, JAVA, And Visual Basic

All of these technologies above can aid an individual or site to crop your information by using known commands that work with your Browser, E-Mail, or other programs that access the Internet. A programmer or web site administrator who has the proper knowledge to implement these technologies to their advantage, by exploiting your personal information or surfing habits via the Internet with their programming talents will try and get this information at any cost. Some web sites will ask your browser what make and version you are using. This is mostly innocent because some web sites set themselves up for different browsers, and need this information to display the web page(s) to you properly with the browser you are using. Other sites use this information to add to their database what you are using to target you for advertising or other ways to keep tabs on what browser you use for their advantage. Some use this information to gain the upper hand for other programming needs based on what browser you use, and what other technologies can aid them in their tasks to get this information they seek.

ActiveX, JAVA, Cookies and other programming aids were suppose to aid users. Today, however, we have seen an influx of privacy violations so abundant, privacy surpasses itself as a myth, rather than fact when communicating over the Internet. When companies and individuals take it upon themselves to sell or give away a persons private intellectual property for their profit, and not yours, who benefits? It certainly is not the user! Wether it be DEMOGRAPHIC MATERIAL in their words, they can manipulate your computer in a way so that they can get certain information that will benefit them, in the ruse that it will benefit you now, or in the long term. Don't buy that line for one moment folks, or I have some land I am willing to sell you cheap in a biological disaster area. It benefits them and their partners, with little or no benefit to you the end user, at the expence of your privacy.

Web BUGS/PIXEL Cookies - Yes, believe it or not, some web sites hide those little Cookies in their graphics also. If they can't get a cookie in the normal way, they attach it to a graphic in hopes it will be planted. Some even go to the extreme by embedding them in "invisible" so to speak, graphics. Why would they do that, in an extreme and very intrusive manner, to the user? Make your own judgement call here. Some Cookies are good, some Cookies are evil theories abound. Just like commercials that invaded the radio and television scene, the Internet is fair game also for these technologies. They hide them in 1x1 pixels embedded in clear .gif files.

(Web bugs, also known as clear .GIF files, enable advertisers to secretly track the online behavior of users for marketing purposes. Web bugs can also be coded in email and linked with a users log files. Basically, same as a Pixel Cookie, but more accepted term for it.)

UNICAST - Unicast is pushing a new ad format called "superstitial", which loads itself unseen into your computers memory while a user is viewing a web site. It appears instantly when a user clicks to another link on the same web site.


Those EULA and POP-UP Disclaimer and Privacy Boxes:

EULA: End User License Agreements - These are the little boxes that pop up on their web site or in programs that you install, and have to agree with prior to excepting and running the program or service. The EULA comes in many forms, and there is no standard law that rules over it, less certain states that impose their restrictions or laws governing such policies. The main problem with most EULA's, is that they are sparse, have no privacy statements to protect the user's privacy or personal habits that are cropped via their program or service, disclosing that your personal information was taken and it could be sold/given away for profit or not, to poorly written and maintained by the provider(s). Some web sites and companies do come straight out and tell the end user exactly what is being cropped and how it will be used. This is a double edge sword, because if a person understands the EULA (most people skip right over it to hurry installation, or simply ignore the EULA) and clicks the next dialog button, they know they can use the service or program right away without any penalty in using that service or program. If you do not agree with the EULA, most services and programs will terminate, thus frustrating the user into submission. They use techniques like rambling legal mumbo-jumbo, long and drawn out EULA's in order to accomplish bordom so the user just clicks the next button, threats of lawsuits against the user, promises by third parties, to out right lies. I have seen it all folks. If you want the low down on these EULA's, and if they affect you where you live, check with a professional legal advisor in your area. :o)



What you can do:

Protect Yourself, Learn About These Technologies - Remember, you can only protect yourself as well as you know the advisary and have the proper tools to accomplish the task. There are so many different companies that now sell software for these tasks, it would be hard to list them all. Our personal favorites are Norton Internet Security products by: www.symantec.com . Firewall, Anti-Virus, ActiveX filters/blockers, JAVA filters/blockers, Script filters/blockers, Privacy filters/blockers and Cookie filters/blockers to name a few. If you cannot afford these packages, one can still monitor and get rid of certain annoyances by doing some simple maintenance to your computer without purchasing costly products:

1.....Rename your computer to the word unknown and others like unknown2,3,4,5.

2.....Make sure File & Print Sharing are Turned OFF if you don't run a Server.

3.....Make sure you keep all of your software/hardware programs UPDATED.

4.....Never tell anyone your Real Name or Where You Live unless you explicitly trust them.

5.....Beware of the "Con-Artist" which tries to make you divulge personal information.

6.....Know your Browser and E-Mail programs capabilities and it's associated programs.

7.....Teach your children about privacy and how to use it on the Internet.

8.....Keep up with Current News concerning Privacy and Internet Security Techniques.

9.....Clean out your COOKIES directory after surfing the web. ***SEE NOTE BELOW***.

10...Make sure you trust web sites enough to run XML, ActiveX, JAVA, Scripts, Applets, & Visual Basic programs on them. When in doubt, don't permit them.

***NOTE*** - In Win98+ systems, you can manage and maintain your Cookies and other nasties in these directories after you surf the web. The first one, which is quite obvious, is located in: C:\Windows\Cookies . After you are done surfing the web, go to this sub-directory and delete everything that you are not familiar with. Keep the cookies that you know and trust. Get rid of everything else, for some of these cookies and other files are nothing more than trackers of where you have been, to monitoring your habits on the Internet, to other nasty activity.

C:\WINDOWS\Temporary Internet Files    sub-directory holds the key, however. In this sub-directory, it also keeps these files. However, if you delete them here, the Cookies sub-directory also gets deleted automatically. So, in retrospect of this discovery, you can simply delete these files in this sub-directory with the advantage of also managing the Cookies sub-directory at the same time. Also, going through your Browser/E-Mail Settings/Options can reveal what it is doing. Make sure you understand what they do, and how you can turn off certain features that you do not want activated, but understand the implications when you disable them and what to expect after the change. Make sure you keep up with your operating system and programs updates/patches/fixes on a regular basis. Keeping your system updated is the most important step in locking down known holes and exploits.