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17 Nov 2000, Finland

Dear Dr. Ecommerce:

Is it possible for the "owner" of the website to know who is using the site? How well could he/she know the user and his/her sex, age, place of residence etc?

If this is possible, how can we prevent web site owners from knowing too much about us?

Mari

Dear Mari:

Normally, the only information the owner of a web site can get about you is domain information on the server you use to access a web site. For example, searching the logs (information about visitors) for my site, I see that this month we have received 314 hits from r3-ts.telepac.pt. Telepac is a Portuguese Internet service provider. However, I do not know the names of the Telepac subscribers who visited, how many of them their were, their email addresses or indeed anything other than where they come from - at least not from my log files.

If I want more information about my visitors, then I need to ask them to provide that information to me. The best way to do this is to have visitors fill out forms on my web site. But since most visitors will not fill out a form without good reason, I need to offer visitors something in exchange for their information. This might be a free gift, a free service, access to valuable information on my web site or the chance to win a prize. This is why so many web sites offer free things - they want your personal information! It is up to you to decide the value of your personal information and determine whether or not it is worth the benefit you receive from supplying it to a particular web site.

Going one step further, once web site's database has information about you, it can put a 'cookie' on your computer. A cookie is a simple text file on your computer which includes some information about you. When you return to the web site, the server reads your cookie and takes appropriate action. For example, if a web site sells clothes, it's November and the cookie tells it you are from Finland, it might provide you with a home page featuring warm weather clothes. However, when another person, whose cookie indicates she comes from Greece, visits the web site, she will likely be presented with a home page featuring clothes more suitable to warmer Greek winters.

In addition to, or instead of, having you fill out on-line forms, some web site owners will collect information about your buying habits and save this on a cookie in your computer. For example, an e-shop selling CDs, will collect information on the kind of CDs you buy and then offer special deals suited to your taste. For example, if you often buy Opera music, the web site might then call up a page telling you about a special deal on a new recording of Rossini's the Barber of Seville.

Here in Europe, the Data Protection directive protects your personal data in that any web site must:

• get your permission to collect data
• indicate what data it is collecting
• indicate what it will do with the data
• indicate who will have access to the data
• allow you to access data about yourself
• allow you to correct incorrect data

In other countries, most notably the USA, there is no data protection law and industry is expected to behave itself. The assumption is that if e-businesses do not respect people's privacy, people will not do business with those companies. It's a good theory, but so many Americans are unhappy with the privacy situation, they are demanding a data protection law in their country.

In any event, it is critical that you carefully check the privacy policy of any web site before you give away information or purchase products from it. If you do not like the privacy policy - go elsewhere.

All the best,

Dr. Ecommerce