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PRIVACYnotes Digest
Security Protecting Privacy is Good for Business
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Published by: Mike Banks Valentine
PrivacyNotes.com privacy@website101.com
www.Privacynotes.com
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April 4, 2002 Issue # 004
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.....IN THIS DIGEST.....
// -- MODERATOR COMMENT -- //
"Notice Without Consent" ~ Mike Banks Valentine
// -- NEW DISCUSSION -- //
"YAHOO! Yanks Privacy" ~ Anonymous
"Technology Affects Privacy" ~ Antonin Scalia ~ Moderator Comment
// -- CONTINUING DISCUSSION -- //
"Who Reads Privacy Policies?" ~anonymous ~Moderator Comment
// -- PRIVACY NEWS -- //
"The Latest in Privacy Issues"
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// -- MODERATOR COMMENT -- //
YAHOO! this week revised their privacy policy and is sending
notice, but without asking permission, to it's millions of free
account holders of the change. In press releases announcing the
privacy update (see the MSNBC news story linked below), YAHOO!
suggests that the move is simply a procedural action to allow
legal investigations when requested by law enforcement agencies.
A second notation suggests that they be allowed to sell member
information to any corporation that might buy YAHOO! properties
as an asset of that potential sale.
But YAHOO! fails to mention publicly what is involved with changes
to how information is shared on existing members with a YAHOO!
ID. The change is sweeping and massive internally as it now requires
every existing member to opt-out of wide information sharing with
partners, advertisers and myriad YAHOO! properties such as the
free email account holders, Geocities free web site members, Yahoogroups
(formerly Onelist.com) email list distribution system and their
giant web directory advertisers (anyone who has paid to list their
site).
The action by YAHOO! prompted a flurry of angry email Friday
across dozens of discussion lists and newsletters suggesting immediate
changes to YAHOO! profiles by current members. I received the
following note from two sources, both of which told me they had
reproduced it from a list they belonged to and didn't know the
original poster. As in many cases of email campaigns, the source
is elusive, but the message is valid and calls for serious attention.
In other privacy news (see news links at bottom), DoubleClick
agreed to settle Federal and State Litigation in the case that
did more to alert the public of online privacy abuses than any
other single controversy. Not surprisingly, very little has been
said publicly by DoubleClick on the settlement so far. Shall we
resurrect that conversation?
~ Mike Banks Valentine
// -- NEW DISCUSSION -- //
===> TOPIC: YAHOO! YANKS PRIVACY!
You may remember when you signed up for a Yahoo ID and were
asked by them if you wished to receive any "Special Offers &
Marketing Communications." Yahoo recently revised their privacy
policy. As a result, and regardless if you chose to receive any
of these "Special Offers" or not when you signed up for your Yahoo
ID, Yahoo have set every single person who has a Yahoo ID (and
those that have more than one) to "Yes" in these preferences.
This means that you may well be inundated with even more junk
mail than you are already receiving.
In order to change your settings back to whatever you had them
at before, you will need to log in to your account and physically
change them.
Login at the following URL - you will be prompted for your Yahoo
ID and password:
http://edit.my.yahoo.com/config/eval_profile
The middle segment within the Member Information (email addresses)
section has a link to: Edit your marketing references. Click on
this link and you will see all of your settings were changed to
"Yes." Meaning of course that you will receive all kinds of "offers"
from Yahoo and their "partners."
Unless you wish to receive even more junk mail than you are
already getting, you may wish to go through the entire page and
choose whether to receive
such notices. Also, right at the bottom of the page are other
ways you could be notified - by phone or postal mail. Unless you
wish to receive unsolicited phone calls and paper junk mail, you
will need to change these settings to "No" also.
Once you have finished your selections, make sure you click
on the Save Changes button right at the bottom of the page.
Yahoo is supposedly sending out notices to all its users regarding
this particular change. However, it is estimated it will take
several weeks for everyone to receive their notification.
===> YAHOO! YANKS PRIVACY!
From: Anonymous
Yahoo has added an area to it's website that allows you to receive
SPAM and they haven't told you about it. However, you can do something
about it!
============DIRECTIONS=============
Go to http://groups.yahoo.com/
Click on Account Info in the upper right hand corner.
When you log in and get to your Account Information screen,
scroll down to the "Members Information" section. Tap on "Edit
your marketing preferences".
Most likely you're signed up for everything. Tap on the 16 "no"
buttons
Then scroll to the bottom of the page to "Other Deliveries"
and tap on the last two no's
Then tap on "Save Changes".
==> YAHOO! YANKS PRIVACY!
From: Anonymous
I think this ranks up there as one of 'scummiest' of all time
maneuvers by a major on line player. Not only did they unilaterally
decide to opt in their members to a number of internal lists,
they changed the default to yes to share information with third
parties... including PHYSICAL ADDRESS and PHONE NUMBERS!
===> TOPIC: TECHNOLOGY AFFECTS PRIVACY
"It would be foolish to contend that the degree of privacy secured
to citizens by the Fourth Amendment has been entirely unaffected
by the advance of technology"
-- U.S. Supreme Court Jusice Antonin Scalia
[ Moderator Comment ] Justice Scalia is not a member of the
list, but clearly we'd welcome his insights. ;-) ~ Mike
// -- CONTINUING DISCUSSION -- //
===> TOPIC: WHO READS PRIVACY POLICIES?
From: Anonymous
I find I never read privacy policies because if I don't already
trust the company to be reasonable with my personal contact info,
I don't believe anything written in their privacy policy either.
I do see the sales value of having a privacy policy readily
available on your site. Surely some folks will be reassured by
them and thus continue the transaction.
But personally I have to wonder what the point is. A company
who is going to immediately sell my contact info to every spammer
in eastern Europe isn't going to say anything worth reading in
their privacy policy, eh?
Sincerely, Anonymous
[ Moderator Comment ]: I was previously comfortable with YAHOO!
since I had ALREADY made my choice not to receive any marketing
information from their partners or internal properties. It seems
that even major players can go from trusted to UMMM . . . not
trusted, in a single sweeping flourish. I revisited and RE-Opted-out
this week, but when will they toss that and require me to RE-Opt-out
again? ~ Mike
===> TOPIC: PRIVACY NEWS
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has joined eight state law
enforcers in the United States and four Canadian agencies in an
initiative targeting deceptive spam and Internet fraud. The agencies
have brought 63 law enforcement actions against Web-based scams
ranging from auction fraud to bogus cancer cure sites, and have
sent more than 500 letters warning people sending deceptive spam
that it is illegal. The task force has been dubbed "NetForce"
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2002/04/spam.htm
DoubleClick agrees to settle Privacy Litigation. Internet advertiser
DoubleClick Inc. on Friday said it had agreed to purge consumer
information it had collected and adhere to an enhanced privacy
policy, as part of a settlement of federal and state class action
lawsuits filed against the firm. DoubleClick agreed to notification
and opt-in approval for combining individual clickstream data
with other personally identifiable data. It also agreed to pay
$1.8 million in legal fees.
http://reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=search&StoryID=757089
A lot of companies are busy gathering customer data, but knowing
how to put that data to good use remains an obstacle for many
firms. Data mining is growing dramatically, but data warehousing
poses huge obstacles to that fine line between personalization
and privacy invasion. This study of Customer Relationship Management
implementation skims the surface of what to do with all that data
once collected.
http://www.emarketer.com/analysis/ebusiness/pepprog_one2one_20020325
html
Crime-Fighting by Computer Widens Scope. New York City's renowned
Compstat (short for computational statistics) crime-fighting program,
originally created to measure and map serious crime in city neighborhoods,
has grown into a sweeping data-collection machine that traces
hundreds of factors, many of which appear distant from the nuts
and bolts of police work.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/24/nyregion/24COMP.html
(Free membership required to read story, but read the privacy
policy first!)
Yahoo March 28 Ñ The giant web portal has revised its privacy
policy to more clearly describe how user data will be treated
in certain circumstances, company officials said. THE NEW POLICY
states Yahoo will share information to investigate circumstances
involving illegal activity such as fraud, violations of its terms
of service agreement and the use of its service for potential
threats. The revision also said Yahoo will transfer user information
if it is acquired by another company and abide by the acquiring
companyÕs privacy policy.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/730862.asp
A Loss to Medical Privacy Opinion By DONNA E. SHALALA, former
Health and Human Services Director for Clinton Administration
says that the Bush administration must be careful not to accept
changes to regulations that could lead to the misuse of patients'
personal health information.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/30/opinion/30SHAL.html?todaysheadlines>
(Free membership required to read story, but read the privacy
policy first!)
