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The Latest Scare: Password Spamming

Sites may be sharing more sensitive data about you than you would allow. Is regulation the answer?

By Brian McWilliams, PCWorld   

The FTC surveyed more than 1000 Web sites in March to assess how they handle home addresses, credit card numbers, and other private information provided by visitors.

Partial results of the study were leaked to privacy specialists and industry leaders, according to a report in Wednesday%squots Washington Post. The newspaper said the FTC found that most sites do not yet have privacy guidelines of any sort. And the agency may even call for new laws restricting companies that collect data online, especially when children are involved.

Hoping to head off such an outcome, a group of twelve high-tech trade associations today sent a letter to President Bill Clinton. In it, members announced they had agreed to adopt a set of strict guidelines protecting privacy.

William Archey is chair of the working group. He%squots also chief executive officer and president of the American Electronics Association. Archey said it%squots too soon to conclude that industry self-regulation can%squott work.

But others say online marketers and data service companies simply can%squott be trusted.

Andrew Leonard is technical correspondent for Salon Magazine. In a story at the online magazine%squots site Wednesday, Leonard details how he and thousands of other Web users recently got a first-hand taste of information exchange for profit, which he calls %dquotpassword spamming.%dquot

Leonard reports that the theglobe.com messed up a cobranding deal between it and the Web site for the magazine Advertising Age. Advertising Age evidently turned over to TheGlobe the names and passwords of visitors who had registered at the Advertising Age site. TheGlobe then mass-registered them to its site and confirmed the registration with an e-mail containing their password.

This latest incident reinforces the requirement of eternal vigilance by Web users, until we have either laws, self-regulation, or market forces to guard online privacy.

In our report Thursday afternoon, we%squotll bring you highlights of the FTC%squots report on online privacy.

Tune in to PC World News Radio to hear today%squots news broadcast via RealAudio.