IP: WEB-FILTER DATA FROM SCHOOLS PUT UP FOR SALE: Edupage, January 24, 2001

[Dave Farber <dave@farber.net>]

>WEB-FILTER DATA FROM SCHOOLS PUT UP FOR SALE
>N2H2, a Seattle-based software company that provides schools with
>Internet filtering software, has roused public ire for using
>gathered data as a marketing tool. The marketing tool, Class
>Clicks, is an aggregate summary of the activities in which
>children participate while logged on to school Internet
>connections. Public privacy groups say this is a completely
>inappropriate use of the data, which were first gathered in 1999
>for school officials to analyze their educational Web programs.
>In the summer of 2000, N2H2 contacted Roper Starch Worldwide, a
>New York marketing firm, to develop the Class Clicks product for
>commercial sale. Washington-based privacy attorney Robert Belair
>contends that while the company has not violated the 1998
>Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, the marketing effort
>may be endangering its public relations. Although N2H2 has
>discounted the cost of the Class Clicks monthly summaries to
>$10,000, it still only has two customers.
>(Wall Street Journal, 26 January, 2001)



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