The White House on Wednesday endorsed an Internet industry initiative aimed at boosting online privacy just hours before acknowledging that one of its own Web sites may have violated federal privacy policy.
Less than six hours after hailing a new technical protocol, US President Bill Clinton's press secretary admitted the White House anti-drug office's Web site may have been gathering personal data about visitors in violation of US federal policy.
Spokesman Joe Lockhart said the White House was taking all steps necessary to halt the use of "cookies" by contractors working for the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Cookies -- small bits of code placed on a Web user's hard drive -- may be used to track online movements and other user's data.
Earlier, the administration saluted the new technical protocol, years in development, which was designed to end abuses like the one acknowledged by the anti-drug office.
The protocol had its first public test in New York on Wednesday of how similarly engineered software applications would mesh.
Industry leaders like Microsoft and America Online Netscape have pledged to rebuild their Web "browsers" to support the new architecture, called P3P, short for Platform for Privacy Preferences.
The standards were developed by the World Wide Web Consortium, a global group drawn from industry, academia, privacy groups and public policy organisations.
P3P allows selections based on privacyP3P is meant to provide users with a clear understanding of how their personal data will be used by a given Web site. Operators may use the protocol to explain their privacy practices in a format that can be retrieved automatically by software.
Users will be able to configure their browsers or other software tools to steer clear of Web sites whose privacy policies do not match their configured preferences, much as a shopper might bypass a store whose policies were found wanting.
Lockhart hailed the new standard as an example of the kind of private-sector leadership the White House hopes will make legislation, strongly opposed by industry, unnecessary in this area.
"Today, the White House is pleased to advance these goals by supporting an initiative that harnesses technology to protect privacy on the Internet," he said. Under federal policy, Web sites belonging to the White House and federal offices must adhere to clearly posted privacy policies.
The anti-drug office said it automatically gathered information on users' visits to its site, www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov, but "this information does not identify you personally."
Lockhart said the office, headed by retired Army General Barry McCaffrey, had never "requested or received" any personally identifiable information based on the use of "cookies" and had ordered its contractors to destroy any data so gathered.
The home page of the White House Web site will be among the first demonstrating the new P3P standard, along with that of the US Commerce Department and 35 or so other sites, he said.
Uncomforable incident for White House The incident was especially uncomfortable for the White House in the wake of the US Federal Trade Commission's decision last month to seek new powers from Congress to police commercial Web sites' privacy policies on grounds that self-regulation was not working. The Clinton administration withheld its approval, urging industry to address the problem.
Microsoft, with its popular Windows operating system, said on Wednesday its next version would include privacy-enabling technologies based on the P3P specification.
Others announcing that their Web sites or parts of them were now P3P-compliant were America Online, AT&T, EngageTechnologies, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Procter and Gamble.
