Web Group Debuts Privacy Platform Prototype

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June 21, 2000 (2:46 PM EDT)

By Mary Mosquera,

The World Wide Web Consortium debuted a long-awaited technology Wednesday that is intended to give Internet users more control over their personal information.

The consortium's interoperability session in New York gave companies and privacy advocates the opportunity to add input to the prototype design of the Platform for Privacy Preferences Project (P3P), which will be available in the coming year.

The World Web Consortium (W3C) is an international group created to develop common protocols that promote the Internet's growth and interoperability. It is jointly run by MIT in the United States, the National Institute for Research in France, and Keio University in Japan. W3C organizations include the Center for Democracy and Technology, Citigroup (stock: C), Geotrust, IBM (stock: IBM), Microsoft (stock: MSFT), and Nokia (stock: NOK).

P3P technology makes privacy statements understandable when users want to know how the sites they visit use their personal information. The protocol is designed to allow consumers to express their privacy preferences through their browser, which communicates those preferences to websites in a machine-readable format.

But some privacy groups said in a report coinciding with the demonstration that the technology was hyped and unlikely to improve privacy. The groups, including Junkbusters and the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said P3P does not meet baseline standards for privacy protection.

"There is little evidence to support the industry claim that P3P will improve user privacy," said the report, "Pretty Poor Privacy: An Assessment of P3P and Internet Privacy." In fact, P3P is a complex and confusing technology that will make it more difficult for Internet users to protect their privacy, the report said.

Browser manufacturers Microsoft and Netscape/AOL could greatly improve privacy by reversing anti-privacy decisions in the design of their products, the report said. Instead, good privacy standards will be build on sites adhering to fair information practices and techniques that minimize the collection of personally identifiable information, according to the report.

P3P offers a technological alternative to having consumers read the privacy policy at each site. A user's browser would automatically "read" the site's privacy policy to see whether it meets the user's preferences.

If a site shares data in ways that go beyond the user's preferences, the user can terminate the connection.

The P3P privacy vocabulary can be adapted to cover the diversity of privacy regulations aroundthe world. The consortium is planning a second interoperability event in Europe in September 2000.

If privacy is ensured, it's hoped more consumers will feel confident in using the Internet for e-commerce. America Online (stock: AOL), AT&T (stock: T), Engage Technologies (stock: ENGA), IBM, Microsoft, and the White House are among those who announced their sites are P3P-compliant.

"By building P3P into the home page of the White House, the administration shows its commitment to continue exploring technological tools that help protect Americans' privacy online," the White House said in a statement.