• * NEW Aug. 18 * -- Here's help on software that facilitates the cookie management you need to do. Click here to go to the tutorial.
• Learn the basics on how you are tracked across the internet
• The war over internet privacy Click here to go to this story
• Javascripts more dangerous than cookies For more click here
• USA-Europe Safe Harbor Agreement gives citizen groups new leverage. Click here
• ChildGuardIt -- New help with children's internet privacy Click here
• Digital signatures: Do you need more education about them? Click here
• At last - a detailed tutorial on how to use your private and public keys in digital signing and encryption so easy that your in-laws can do it Click here
• Are privacy statements worth the paper on which they are written? The Skeptic says 'no'. Click here
• Web bugs, a highway for privacy invasion on the internet. Click here
• What is the Privacy Price of your Purchase in the Marketplace, Or Why You Need to Get Serious About Cookie Management Click here
• Learn the basics on how you are tracked across the internet Click here to go to the tutorial.

The war over internet privacy
In a late May, 2000, report, Federal Trade Commission seems to have started one battle in a larger war over the future of privacy on the internet. For tourists, other travelers, and big players in the travel and tourism industry, this battle and the larger war of which it is a part, have more than passing significance. Moreover, "Congress would not have any way of taking sides in the larger war." Click here for more on this story.

Javascripts more dangerous than cookies
Three recent internet security incidents involving Javascript illustrate why massive multi-dimensional empowerment of users of the internet is needed, and why Javascript is a more potent source of electronic snooping upon your privacy than cookies. The basic reason why we are far from a final victory over security holes in the internet is discussed in this article, where you will also get a five-minute course on JAVA's impressive security efforts. For more on this story click here.

USA-Europe Safe Harbor Agreement Gives Citizen Groups New Leverage.
The tentative Safe Harbor Agreement recently concluded between the the US Dept. of Commerce and a Commission of the European Union is a major development for internet privacy seekers, contrary to the naysayers. To be granted a 'safe harbor' in Europe, big companies and their supporting 'army' promoting highly targeted marketing are going to have to change their behaviour. And if they can change their behaviour in order to grow in Europe, why can they not be more privacy-friendly right here at home?
Click here for more on this story.

ChildGuardIt -- New help with children's internet privacy
A new software-supported system to help protect children's privacy on the internet was announced this week by CitX Corporation of Quakertown, Pa. "ChildGuardIt" will include a process to hide children's identities when they click on advertising banners and otherwise interact with advertising and promotional literature. The announcement of ChildGuardIt by CiTX takes on enhanced significance in the context of recent aggressiveness in favour of privacy protection being shown by key players in the judicial system. Click here for more on this story.

Digital signatures: do you need more education about them? With the help of a just-signed federal law (passed by Congress on June 16th and signed June 30th by President Clinton), organizations will soon be pressuring you to use digital signatures. These are helpful; but they have one key downside. The chances of people being impersonated convincingly (they cannot prove the impersonation in a court of law) will increase significantly with digital signatures. Click here for more on this story.

At last - a detailed tutorial on how to use your private and public keys in digital signing and encryption so easy that your in-laws can do it. Avoid the long and frustrating process of finding a detailed tutorial on acquiring and using digital signatures by examining a new article found exclusively right here in Arawak Net's Privacy Watch. Yes, you have acquired your "private" and "public" keys; but how exactly do you use them? Our article tries to help by presenting you with a series of screen shots, along with clarifying comments, that arise from sending and receiving digitally signed and encrypted electronic messages, including orders for goods and services, opinions you want to circulate so the recipients only can read your text and they know for sure it came from you and not some impersonator, etc. Click here for the tutorial.

Are privacy statements worth the paper on which they are written? The Skeptic says 'no'. A July 12 PRNewswire story reports an estimate that "6.3 million internet users refuse to search for health information online because of privacy, ethical fears", and the hope that this problem will be managed through strong web site privacy statements. However, "it's being demonstrated by high-profile players that privacy statements are not worth as much as the paper on which they written, no matter who issues them" says The Skeptic in a conversation between The True Believer and The Skeptic. Click here to go to the conversation.

Web bugs, a highway for privacy invasion on the internet. On July 20, Microsoft announced that it was introducing a beta security patch for the next version of Internet Explorer that would allow for better management of web cookies. When you learn about Web Bugs you will appreciate that this is a very important announcement, given the new dominance of Explorer among browsers. At this point, the Web Bugging process is virtually unstoppable, and the best you can do is to frustrate the stealthy tracking of your web surfing by improving your method of cookie management, since cookies are an essential ingredient in the use of the Web Bug to conduct privacy invasions by stealth. Click here for more on this story.

What is the Privacy Price of your Purchase in the Marketplace, Or Why You Need to Get Serious About Cookie Management. A July 24 item from IDG News Service (and online courtesy of PC World Communications) points to a web address where "Full details of hundreds of credit cards are out in the open." The August 2nd edition of SANS Institute NewsBites states as follows: "28 and 27 July 2000 . . . The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approved a plan that would allow online advertisers to self-regulate consumer profiling data collection." These two stories contain information that supports the conclusion that persistent cookies placed on personal computers by e-marketers now make cookie management essential for the millions of consumers that are concerned about their privacy on the internet. Click here for more on this story.

Learn the basics on how you are tracked across the internet. How do cookies become key elements in tracking your web surfing from one one web site to another? A basic tutorial that sketches the answer to this question is provided here, with the help of a screen photo obtained from the demonstration provided by http://privacy.net/. You also get a brief introduction to available cookie management facilities in Internet Explorer, again with the help of screen photos. Click here to go to the tutorial.

Here's help on software that facilitates the cookie management you need to do.. How web browsers and supporting non-browser software facilitate the cookie management process is an important question for millions of web surfers. A new article among our Privacy Watch pages continues our review of tools for cookie management. It considers one Macintosh and one PC program, doing so largely in tutorial, rather than in critical-reviewer, mode, and provides links to sources of the software. Click here to go to the tutorial.

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