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
>
>
>