Safer surfing. (Up Front: news, trends & analysis).A good Internet privacy Internet privacy consists of privacy over the media of the Internet: the ability to control what information one reveals about oneself over the Internet, and to control who can access that information. policy can be one of a business' best assets, but many aren't sure how to transform written guidelines guidelines, n.pl a set of standards, criteria, or specifications to be used or followed in the performance of certain tasks. into electronic rules. Software to help businesses automate To turn a set of manual steps into an operation that goes by itself. See automation. their Internet privacy policies, as well as software to alert Internet users Internet user n → internauta m/f Internet user Internet n → internaute m/f to different privacy settings on Web sites, is much needed, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. experts who say privacy policies and practices in corporate America have been steadily declining over the past few years. Consumers, however, still rate online privacy as one of their top concerns, according to the Electronic Privacy Center. Most people are still concerned about what happens to their personal information when they visit a Web site. Corporations must diminish those concerns, and software does exist to help them do so. For example, IBM's Tivoli Privacy Wizard Instructional help in an application or system development environment that guides the user through a series of multiple choice questions to accomplish a task. For the most part, wizards are more effective than the help menus found in most applications, which often border on the atrocious. transforms an enterprise's written privacy policies into electronic guidelines that can be used to stop employees from violating the rules. The software can prevent an employee from using a customer's home address information for any purpose other than shipping a product. Another software product, AT&T's Privacy Bird, enables Internet users to set privacy preferences and receive visual and audio cues when they visit Web sites that meet, exceed, or fall short of their privacy parameters. The companies are offering their software free of charge to help businesses automate Internet privacy practices and give Web users more control over sites' privacy levels. The software probably won't end privacy problems or expand individuals' privacy protection, but it may help companies comply with their privacy policies and give consumers more confidence to surf. |
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