IP: Consumers groups ask FTC to stop email-cookie bug

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> Date: Fri, 03 Dec 1999 09:03:12 -0500
> To: farber () cis upenn edu
> From: Will Rodger <rodger () att net>
>
> How anonymous is the Web?
>
> New e-mail security flaw could let companies track surfers
>
> By Will Rodger, USATODAY.com
>
> For years, online companies have told consumers that even though they 
> tracked their movements across the Internet, they remained "anonymous."
>
> Now, Richard S. Smith, a computer scientist with a long track record of 
> exposing online privacy violations, says a security flaw in most current 
> e-mail programs could help reveal Web users' identities to thousands of 
> Web sites.
>
> Smith says a feature in those programs lets e-mail messages carry unique 
> digital identification tags -- known as 'cookies' -- once found only in 
> Web browsers.
>
> "Now anyone can send you an e-mail that opens you up to being tracked 
> around the Web without your consent," says Jason Catlett, president of the 
> Junkbusters.com Internet consultancy. "We're going to be telling the 
> Federal Trade Commission this practice is totally unfair. Stop it."
>
> Junkbusters and a wide range of advocacy groups including The Electronic 
> Privacy Information Center, the Center for Media Education, Privacy 
> International, Ralph Nader's Consumer Project on Technology, The Consumer 
> Federation of America and the Electronic Frontier Foundation are expected 
> to petition the FTC Friday to order software makers to fix the flaw........
>
>  http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/ctg802.htm