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IP: More on Privacy issue - Alexa/Netscape partnership
From: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Date: Wed, 21 Oct 1998 12:00:02 -0400
Reply-To: <austin () zks net> From: "Austin Hill" <austin () zks net> To: <farber () cis upenn edu> Hi Dave, Thought your readers might be interested in this paper detailing the privacy implications of the What's Related feature. http://www.interhack.net/pubs/whatsrelated/ -Austin _________________________________________________________________________ Austin Hill Zero-Knowledge Systems Inc. President Montreal, Quebec Phone: 514.286.2636 Ext. 226 Fax: 514.286.2755 E-mail: austin () zks net http://www.zks.net Zero Knowledge Systems Inc. - Nothing Personal Abstract: Netscape Communications Corporation's release of Communicator 4.06contains a new feature, ``Smart Browsing'', controlled by a new icon labeled What's Related , a front-end to a service that will recommend sites that are related to the document the user is currently viewing. The implementation of this feature raises a number of potentially serious privacy concerns, which we have examined here. Specifically, URLs that are visited while a user browses the web are reported back to a server at Netscape. The logs of this data, when used in conjunction with cookies, could be used to build extensive dossiers of individual web users, even including their names, addresses, and telephone numbers in some cases. Keywords: Privacy, world-wide web (WWW), Netscape, Alexa, smart browsing, what's related.
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- IP: More on Privacy issue - Alexa/Netscape partnership Dave Farber (Oct 21)