While vendors stumble over one another to offer the latest personalization technology, privacy advocates are worried that advancements in e-commerce services have a steep price: the integrity of a person's identity.
"I don't want to live in a world that tracks my every move just because I like to have a cell phone," said Austin Hill, CEO of Montreal-based Zero-Knowledge Systems, at his opening keynote at the Computers, Freedom and Privacy 2000 conference in Toronto earlier this week. "Privacy is the civil rights and environmental movement of the 21st century."
Hill's company is doing its part with Freedom 1.1, a just-released upgrade to its privacy software that allows users to surf the Web and send e-mail anonymously or under pseudonyms -- allowing tracking software to know only what the user wants it to know.
Landmark legislation
Other groups are also being proactive in shielding consumers from prying eyes. The Canadian Parliament this week passed a landmark bill that, when it goes into effect next year, will prohibit government-regulated businesses from the secondary use or distribution of personal data without a person's consent. The law will be extended to all businesses after three years.
"It preserves the freedom of choice," said Ann Cavoukian, Information and Privacy commissioner of Ontario, noting that similar measures by the European and Asian markets leave the United States as the last major player without a substantive online privacy policy.
Vendors are trying to cope with the situation by becoming more responsible as well. At Internet World in Los Angeles this week, 26 companies formed the Personalization Consortium to establish guidelines and procedures for use of private information provided by customers.
