Session One: Computerized
Data Bases Containing Data Base Study -- Request to Participate, P974806 This is request for Mr. Christopher Evans, CEO of Accipiter, to participate in the FTC Public Workshop on Consumer Information Privacy, Session One. 1.6 Do the data bases contain identifying information that consumers regard as non-sensitive? What identifying information is considered to be non-sensitive? Why is such information regarded as non-sensitive? The Web provides a medium where much more information can be tracked about an individual than in many other mediums. While arguments are made that the web is like someone looking over your shoulder at all your activities and personal tastes, the information that is collected is used for much more benign activities. Typical data that Internet data bases maintain on individuals includes information such as how many times an ad has been viewed by an individual, the date and time a site was visited and the length frequency of an individual's visit to a particular site. This level of information is quite innocuous to the degree that anything can be learned or done with it. Websites use cookies or databases to track responses to advertising and content to improve the overall experience to the visitor has at the site as well as increase the effectiveness of the Internet as an alternate content medium. These factors combine to increase the margins Websites can generate and work to establish the Internet as a viable medium for consumers and advertisers to use. Personal information such as social security number, phone number or email address are the least relevant information a site could use to track an individual. A common misconception about cookies and the collection of personal information is that it can be used by an experienced computer professional to hack into a computer and gain access to confidential files. This is absolutely false. Cookies are merely used as a way to recognize a visitor and their past history without a having to include logins and passwords at a site. Chris Evans is CEO of Accipiter Inc. Accipiter provides solutions that allow site publishers to profile individual visitors and their activity on their sites in a way that is credible to advertisers and that can back up claims about the quality and focus of a site's audience. The system relies on proven database marketing and advertising techniques that have benefited advertisers and content providers in other mediums. Chris Evans |