A group in the US Congress has said it wants to push forward a
privacy bill that will forbid some internet tracking technologies.
Meanwhile, eBay has said it will begin hiding the e-mail addresses
of its customers to protect against spam.
A group in the US Congress has said it wants to push forward a
privacy bill that will forbid some internet tracking technologies.
Meanwhile, on-line auction leader eBay has said it will begin
hiding the e-mail addresses of its customers, making it more
difficult for spammers to collect their information.
The Congressional Privacy Caucas group said they want federal
privacy laws to appease concerns over what they describe as “the
civil rights issue of the decade,” according to a report by news
agency Reuters.
The US has long taken an industry self-regulatory approach to
such privacy issues, unlike Europe’s data protection laws. The
so-called “web bugs” which the proposed bill will outlaw enable
marketing companies to track the surfing and shopping habits of
individuals.
The announcement by eBay to change its policy also means that
users are restricted in how they contact each other directly making
it hard for them to cut the company out of its sales commission.
However, the company said its move was motivated by concerns over
the harvesting of addresses for unsolicited commercial e-mail,
better known as spam.
