PRIVACY ON THE INTERNET
    WHAT ARE THE ISSUES?

Archiving
As a digital medium, the Internet has the ability to record and archive our entire online existence, creating a permanent record of our daily online activities. The Net is akin to a public forum, where what we say instantly becomes public record, accessible to anyone who's interested. Email invites a feeling of casualness, encouraging us to write comments to friends or colleagues as if we were talking by the water cooler. These messages, however, don't trail off into thin air like innocent office chatter. They leave permanent digital records that can be catalogued and later retrieved. In fact, this information can even be used by individuals to assume our identities and correspond online pretending to be us! Email messages we send, openly display who we are, who we're writing to and what we're writing about. Maybe we should call them e-postcards. Whether the message is about confidential company information or an innocent high school crush -- we have a fundamental right to privacy that is being ignored.

Profiling
Personal information about us is being collected all over the Internet. One site might ask you for your birthdate, another might ask where you live while a third wants to know how much you earn. These little requests for information often go unnoticed. What we don't realize, however, is that behind the scenes, this information is pooled into large databases by information aggregating companies -- some of which hold data on over 176 million individuals and 96 million households. Combined with your credit information, education history, medical records, census info, etc., the data is used to create eerily accurate profiles. These profiles are then made available to third parties that resell the information to marketers and advertisers, often without your knowledge or consent.

The Inability To Separate Online Identities
In the physical world, we tend to act differently depending on the situation we're in, who we're with, who's watching, etc. For example, Susan might act one way in a conversation with her friends, but completely different in an interview with a potential employer. Both "identities" are really Susan, but the two are never related. Many people use the Internet for a number of different activities. These different activities are currently all related back to a single digital identity. Everything Susan says or does online is automatically tied in to her actual identity.

HOW DO THESE ISSUES AFFECT ME?

The dangers of archiving, profiling and identity on the Internet can lead to many things, including:

  • Junk Mail (SPAM)
    Details about what individuals do online are extremely valuable to businesses seeking to target customers. Sophisticated technology enables companies to track and analyze your browsing habits, including not only what sites you visit, but the path you take through the site as well. Your profile is often bought and sold without your knowledge or consent, resulting in a barrage of junk mail in your inbox.
  • Discrimination
    Let's say that your profile indicates that you are not a big spender on long-distance services. The next time you call your long distance carrier, you may end up on hold for what seems like an eternity, while other, high-spending customers receive immediate responses.
  • Misinformation
    No database is immune to inaccuracies, and false information about you could damage your career and/or your reputation. Research you may have conducted on smoking-related illnesses, for example, could mistakenly imply that you are a smoker or that you suffer from an ailment that could affect your job performance. Your employer or insurance company could then use this misinformation against you.
  • Accidental Disclosure
    Imagine finding the results of your latest medical exam posted on the Internet. Incidents like this are occurring with more regularity through negligence, hacker attacks and plain stupidity. Website privacy policies are often limited in their scope or sometimes not enforced at all. Companies you may voluntarily provide personal information to may re-sell that information without your knowledge.

 

HOW CAN I PROTECT MYSELF AND MY FAMILY?

Zero-Knowledge Systems is proud to present Freedom - the first product to provide Internet users with complete control of their privacy online by offering them the ability to create and manage multiple digital pseudonyms (identities) for online communications. A digital pseudonym lets you create a unique online identity for yourself (which may or may not be like your true self) that you can use to perform all your Internet-related tasks. Freedom pseudonyms ("nyms") are email addresses, ending in freedom.net, for example -- [email protected].

Users are able to create up to 5 nyms for Internet use. For example, in addition to [email protected], which she will use for regular correspondence, Susan might opt to create [email protected]. She will use this identity for surfing activist web sites, emailing her political contacts, chatting in political chat rooms and posting to political newsgroups and discussion lists. This will enable Susan to actively participate in these forums without her political or social views being related to her actual identity. With Freedom, Susan is able to benefit from the continued use of private identities, which are unique and persistent, yet completely removed from her actual identity. No one - not even Zero-Knowledge Systems - will be able to find out who is behind a digital identity.

WHAT UNIQUE PRIVACY PROTECTING
FEATURES DOES FREEDOM OFFER?

  • Private Web Browsing
    Surf the Web on your own terms. Freedom prevents others from tracking your online activities. It also associates your bookmarks and preferences with your different digital identities.
  • Total Cookie Management
    Many web site place cookies (little bits of information) on your computer to record and customize your visit. Freedom uses Cookie JarsTM to sort the cookies your nyms receive on the Web. Cookie Jars manage and sort cookies with their associated digital identities, preventing the accidental receipt of cookies that could compromise your anonymity while maintaining all the benefits that cookies provide. Each digital identity has its own Cookie Jar, and any cookie received by that identity is collected in its individual jar. This way, your digital identities remain completely separate from each other and from your real self.
  • Private Email
    Using strong encryption, Freedom encrypts all your messages. No one except the intended recipient will be able to read your messages (not even the government). In addition, Freedom scans your messages for personal information and alerts you of potential security risks, greatly reducing the chance of accidentally releasing private data - by you or your children.
  • Newsgroup Privacy
    Similar to its email protection, Freedom will allow you to participate in newsgroup discussions, knowing that your true identity remains private.
  • Private Chat
    Since Freedom protects all your Internet communications, chatting is now a private affair. Your Internet activities are linked to specific digital identities, so you can be confidant knowing that you can chat privately without compromising any personal information.
  • Private Telnet
    By removing all identifying information from outgoing data packets, including your IP address, Freedom enables you to privately use any Telnet-based bulletin system.
  • Eliminate Spam
    Unsolicited commercial email (also known as spam) is a constant source of irritation to millions of Internet users. Freedom has advanced spam-filtering tools so you can filter out unwanted, unsolicited e-mail sent to your pseudonyms. When enabled, Freedom's anti-spam functions eliminate 100% of unwanted bulk email before it even gets to your mailbox.
  • Digital Certificates
    A digital certificate serves as the electronic equivalent of your signature when you send documents across the Internet. It lets you digitally "sign" a message so that the recipient can be sure the message came from you, and not someone pretending to be you.

"... abcsite.com realizes that...." online privacy is one of the main concerns of our customers. To address these concerns, we have affiliated ourselves with Zero-Knowledge Systems, makers of Freedom -- an Internet privacy software solution that prevents your personal data from being revealed without your knowledge or consent. To download Freedom now, please click here:

Freedom Download

For more information on how you can take advantage of the Freedom program, please click on the link below:
                                                  www.zeroknowledge.com

 

                                  TOP