NEW YORK, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Walgreen Co. (WAG), the No. 1 U.S. drugstore chain, on Thursday said the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has requested details about its customer privacy and marketing policies, two days after rival Rite Aid Corp. (RAD) said its policies were being probed.

"We received a letter from the FTC asking for some information and we will provide that information and hopefully that will take care of their concerns," Walgreen spokesman Michael Polzin told Reuters.

Rite Aid, the No. 3 U.S. pharmacy chain, on Tuesday said its marketing and customer privacy policies have come under the FTC spotlight, but anticipated that the regulatory body would find no wrongdoing.

Analysts said the FTC is probing whether drugstores are infringing upon customer privacy when pharmaceutical firms ask them to promote particular medicines to customers.

One industry analyst who declined to be identified said pharmacies had a pact with big pharmaceutical companies who paid them for suggesting or marketing prescriptions to their customers.

The practice has thus raised the FTC's eyebrows on the grounds that it could be jeopardizing customer privacy, analysts said. "In the worst case I think the FTC could ask pharmacies to stop the practice," one analyst said.

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Pharmacies are required to get a patient's name and address, whereas consumers do not necessarily provide their name and address to other retailers when they purchase goods, Ryan noted. So there may be concerns surrounding pharmacies capitalizing on this requirement.

Economist.com | E-mail spam.

Servers fitted with IronPort's spam-recognition system will be able to identify "bonded senders" by their web addresses, and can block senders that are not bonded. Next week, it expects to announce that many of the best-known senders of non-spam bulk e-mail have signed up, along with the big Internet service providers, to its bonded-sender programme. The size of the bond will change over time, but is likely to be around $100,000 initially. The number of complaints made by recipients of e-mail from the sender will determine whether the bond is forfeited, in full or part. According to Mr Banister, "the first complaint will not cost you much, a 3-4 digit number will cause pain to the bonded sender and 10,000 or more will result in the most severe punishment." Here's hoping it works.

Technology News from Wired News - Can a Hacker Outfox Microsoft?

Cypherpunk Lucky Green files a defensive patent to prevent the software giant from using Palladium to block piracy efforts. Analysts say it just might work.

xs4all.nl/~egbg/ - anti-telemarketing EGBG counterscript.

Found this one at Mr.E.'s Radio Weblog.

AAronsw.com - Transcript of Eldred vs Ashcroft. ERIC ELDRED, ET AL., Petitioners v. JOHN D. ASHCROFT, ATTORNEY GENERAL No. 01-618 Supreme Court OF THE UNITED STATES

Boston Globe Online / Business / Cyber chief speaks on Data network security.

President Bush's point man on computer security says that the nation has a long way to go in securing its data networks but that new federal regulations would be a step in the wrong direction.

Richard Clarke, head of the White House Office of Cyber Security, also said the government should modify a controversial law designed to prevent exploitation of software security flaws because it can be used to stifle research to improve computer security.

''We don't want to create the Federal Internet Security Regulatory Agency,'' said Clarke. Clarke wants businesses and government agencies to work together voluntarily on tougher network security standards to protect their computer systems from small-time criminals and international terrorists alike.

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At the town meeting, Clarke responded to a question about the controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The act makes it illegal to publicize the existence of security flaws in computer software, but computer software companies have used the law to threaten legal action against academic researchers who publicize their discoveries of such flaws.

Clarke said such threats were a misuse of the law and that reform is needed. ''I think a lot of people didn't realize that it would have this potential chilling effect on vulnerability research.''

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''There's got to be a middle ground between the federal government running the Internet ... and abandoning it,'' he said.

And Clarke said the federal government can play a major role in setting tougher security standards by simply applying such standards to its own purchases of computer hardware and software. Because federal agencies spend billions on data processing and networking products, businesses will upgrade their products in order to bid on federal contracts, and these improvements will be passed on to private sector customers as well.