Online privacy isn't the issue it once was, if indeed people really ever cared about it. Oh sure, everyone's in favor of privacy in the same way that they're in favor of Mom and apple pie, but exactly how software should preserve privacy is a more controversial issue.. . .
Online privacy isn't the issue it once was, if indeed people really ever cared about it. Oh sure, everyone's in favor of privacy in the same way that they're in favor of Mom and apple pie, but exactly how software should preserve privacy is a more controversial issue. Were they aware of the trade-offs involved, I'm not so sure how committed people would be.

The main industry initiative facilitating user privacy is the W3C initiative, Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P). P3P provides a way for site authors to make their privacy policies available in an automated and structured manner. There's nothing about it that enforces privacy, though. The site's policy may say that they'll sell your name and e-mail address to every pornographer who'll pay for it, and then it's fine for them do that, because you've been warned. Clearly this is not the be-all and end-all of privacy, nor does it claim to be.

The link for this article located at ZDNet is no longer available.