Nowhere to Run, Nowhere to Hide: The Online Privacy Issue

Overview

Debating online privacy isn't merely a philosophical exercise. Companies collect reams of information about visitors to their websites and about their customers' web-surfing ways. A person may be able to hide his or her visits to offbeat, or off-color, websites from his or her spouse, but can't hide them from Google and Yahoo. And governments at all levels have shown an increasing hunger for that kind of information. In some ways, the debate over privacy on the web shows amnesia about longstanding business practices and consumer behavior. Privacy protection isn't just an obstacle to making money. It also presents opportunities. Consumers might authorize them to make judgments about when and to what extent personal information should be released.