I think initial privacy should be absolute.

Any decrease in privacy should have to be agreed to by the user explicitly
and those violating the privacy should have to provide a big red button on
the violating web pages saying "RESTORE YOUR ABSOLUTE PRIVACY PROTECTION BY
CLICKING THIS BUTTON".

I agree that those willing to give up their privacy should be able to do so
but one should NEVER lose it by default.

Jerome

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Josh Flowers [mailto:josh at i33.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, February 16, 2000 9:08 PM
> To: squeak at cs.uiuc.edu
> Subject: Re: Project for someone to do
>
>
> Although I fear ostracism, I also feel obliged to speak up.  I
> actually work
> for a company similar to DoubleClick.
>
> Now, before anyone goes out and destroys my credit rating, I'm a little
> curious about where people feel the privacy line should be drawn.  Our
> current product tracks nothing more than what banners work best,
> and where.
> We can tell that the blue banner on Yahoo's home page generated more sales
> than the red one on Excite, but nothing about individual users.
>
> That having been said, we (like every other company in this field) are
> looking at moving into what is described as "one-to-one marketing" (that
> can't be bad can it?).  The current idea is that for a single
> advertiser, we
> can track peoples history, and better interact with them.  So if you buy a
> AppleG4, and we're serving apple's ad's, we can show you an add
> for the new
> AirPort card you didn't buy.  On the upside, it's like your grandfather
> walking into the general store, and having the people there know him, and
> what he likes.  On the downside, you loose some anonymity on the Web.
>
> At my company the developers have had many discussions about this, but I'm
> very curious to hear how others feel.  Obviously I don't think this thread
> needs to stay on the list, but if people want to respond to me personally,
> I'd be very interested to read your comments.
>
> Note:  If you think advertising on the web is evil, I personally have no
> problem with that, so please try not to send flames.  Thanks.
>
> on 2/16/00 3:39 PM, Lex Spoon at lex at cc.gatech.edu wrote:
>
> > I'd use it!
> >
> > This kind of program generalizes very well.  There is a "Muffin" program
> > in Java which does some of this already.  You point your web browser at
> > Muffin, and Muffin will filter both requests and replies.  Filters are
> > Java objects, and you can add new ones as desired.  Some of the existing
> > filters:
> >
> > 1. Eliminate cookies
> > 2. Eliminate ad banners
> > 3. Eliminate images from known ad sites
> > 4. Remove JavaScript
> > 5. Modify your User-Agent: field
> >
> > I've really thought that doing this in Squeak would be much nicer.
> > Perhaps Comanche would help.
> >
> >
> > Lex
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > "Ted K." <Ted.Kaehler at disney.com> wrote:
> >> Folks,
> >> Here is something I would really love to have in Squeak.  It is a
> >> "Cookie Zapper" with control.  I am upset at the amount of info that
> >> companies like DoubleClick are collecting on me using cookies
> (in Netscape
> >> or Internet Explorer).  I do want cookies for places I like
> and trust, but
> >> I don't want cookies for others.
> >> There are cookies I want to keep.  I want Amazon to recognise me
> >> when I log on.
> >> How about a Squeak program that does this:
> >>
> >> () Keeps a dictionary of companies that have planted cookies
> in the past.
> >> With each company is 'true' if I want to keep their cookie.
> >> ()  Silently erases the cookies of the ones I don't want.
> >> ()  Asks me when a new kind of cookie appears.
> >>
> >> I don't know how to make sense of the data in cookies, but you
> >> probably do.  An application that handled them would be a service to
> >> Squeak-kind.  And I could see inside it and tailor it to my
> needs, unlike
> >> other cookie control programs.
> >>
> >> --Ted.
> >>
> >>
> >> Ted Kaehler,   Walt Disney Imagineering, R&D
> >> (home) 3415 Cork Oak Way, Palo Alto, CA  94303.  voice (650) 424-1070
> >> http://www.webPage.com/~kaehler2/
> >
> >
>
>