U.S. Secretary of Commerce Norman Y. Mineta said September 19 the communications industry is starting to respond to public and government concerns regarding the protection of individual privacy online.

"The Internet has been a central part of the longest peacetime economic expansion in our history," Mineta said in a speech to a Washington, D.C. workshop on online privacy technologies sponsored by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, an office within the Department of Commerce. "But we don't think this growth will continue unless both consumers and businesses are confident about their experiences on the Net. So, we see privacy as a make-or-break issue."

Techweb > News > privacy > U.S. Leads Effort To Lift Surveillance Safeguards.

Direct Marketing Association - Verifiable Parental Consent Under COPPA. In truth, COPPA presents significant legal issues for sites that fall within its scope. Failure to comply with the letter of COPPA and these regulations may result in significant fines as well as liability to the child and the child's parents. As a result, sites that are directed to children, as defined in the act and regulations, should be very careful about establishing a valid compliance policy.

computeruser - News: Businesses, Privacy Groups Clash Over P3P Effectiveness .

IDG.net - ICE: Balance personalization, privacy on Web sites.

Promoters of techniques for personalizing content on electronic-commerce Web sites say those are a valuable marketing tool. But privacy advocates caution that it's bad business, as well as bad ethics, to misuse personal data.

Speakers today at the Komm conference, held at the Internet Commerce Expo (ICE) here, offered tips on how businesses can better tailor Web content to individual users' needs.

This is the Senate Judiciary Committee Privacy in the Digital Age:  A Resource for Internet Users. Prepared by Majority Staff Actually its a page that points to the PDF document.

Yahoo News - Web Privacy Tools Detailed in Senate Guide.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (news - web sites) on Wednesday touted ``identity scrubbers,'' self-destructing e-mail and other online privacy protection tools as an alternative to stepped-up policing of the Web.

Releasing a consumer guide to state-of-the-art ways to curb personal data giveaways, the Utah Republican said protecting online privacy was a ``very hot issue and it's going to get hotter.''

The Register (UK) - Network Ice posts do-it-yourself Carnivore kit.

Newsbytes - US Privacy Protections Are World's Weakest - Report.

Of all the nations in the developed world, the United States is doing perhaps the worst job of protecting the privacy rights of its Internet- connected citizens, a new report finds.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center's third annual report "Privacy and Human Rights 2000" paints a grim global picture of a world where personal privacy rights are eroding with each new technological advance.

EPIC/PI - Privacy & Human Rights 2000. This survey, by EPIC and Privacy International, reviews the state of privacy in over fifty countries around the world. The survey examines a wide range of privacy issues including, data protection, telephone tapping, genetic databases, ID systems and freedom of information laws. The report finds that there is a worldwide regocnition of privacy as a fundamental human right. Many countries around the world are enacting comprehenisve data protection law to safeguard individual privacy increase. However at the same time, privacy is increasingly being undermined by technical advances and the demands of intelligence and law enforcement agencies for increase surveillance powers. There is a strong need for improved oversight and stricter enforcement of current laws to ensure that legal protections are not ignored as threats to personal privacy increase. Thanks again to David for another good piece of info.

Conference - "Public Voice in Privacy Policy".
Giorgio Cini Foundation
Venice, Italy
September 27, 2000

Culture News from Wired News - What's the Worst & *#% Filter?.

Famed auto racer Dick Trickle's name no doubt helps him get good seats at busy restaurants, but it would keep him from registering at a number of websites with filtering programs.

Fed up with such filtering programs and other so-called Internet "censorware," the Digital Freedom Network has launched its Foil the Filters contest.

Web users are encouraged to submit examples of foolish Web filters through Sept. 25. DFN hopes the contest will draw attention to filtering software, which DFN Internet Development Director Alan Brown calls "ineffective at best."

Slashdot | Privacilla-Open Source Privacy Policy Making?. and the direct link for the mentioned site Privacilla.org.

Slashdot | Privacy Concerns and The CueCat.

New York Times - free registration required Supreme Court Docket Now on Web. Sadly no URL was provided.