Your Information is Safe Here

I don't collect e-mail addresses, IP addresses, referrers, leave cookies behind on your system. I don't share your information with anyone else (even my wife!). When people write to me, I always reply, but only save their e-mail address if they ask me to. Period.

Most ad banners on this site don’t collect information until you click on them.  They may leave cookies on your computer, particularly if you click on a link. But that’s mostly just to link back to this site when you make a purchase.  Then any information you provide them is their responsibility.  But I only deal with advertisers that I trust.

The exception to this are the ads from Barnes & Noble’s affiliate, which uses a “web bug” to associate the display of their ad on this site with my affiliation.  This invisible graphic doesn’t leave anything behind on your computer, but links your current IP address with my affiliation, so if you purchase from them, they’ll know you came from the ITBS site.  If you went to other sites that displayed their ads, they could conceivably track your surfing habits for that day only since most people’s IP address change every time they connect to the Internet.  I think the chances of Barnes & Noble tracking your surfing habits is fairly low

INTERNET PRIVACY TODAY -- WHAT ARE THE ISSUES?

The Net was not designed for privacy. When you surf the web, send e-mail, chat, and post to newsgroups, your computer leaves behind a digital footprint called an IP address. Footprints in the real world fade with time, but in Cyberspace, your IP address is recorded permanently. Even if you provide false information to web site registration forms, your personal information can easily be tracked down. Remember, the Internet was designed for computers to exchange information, not hide it.

Your life is an open book. Internet traffic, such as e-mail messages, are just like postcards. Anyone who intercepts them discover who you're talking to and what you're saying. Live chat and password-protected web sites also give the illusion of anonymity, but your IP address is still recorded alongside your chat transcripts and stored in company database logs. You can never take back what you say online.

You are the target (market). Marketers want to know as much as they can about you, and the Internet is the perfect tool for compiling detailed personal profiles. Increasingly sophisticated profiling technology has emerged to harvest as much personal information as possible from the Net. Your name, address, employer, salary, marital status, religion, hobbies… it's all collected and placed in a growing profile with your name on it. If you think this sounds far-fetched, think again. This kind of surveillance is happening now.

So what if they eavesdrop? You're a good person with nothing to hide, so why should you care if your personal information and communications are vulnerable? Lots of reasons. Beyond the annoyance of being bombarded with marketing messages, your profile can be used to discriminate, harass, or even perpetrate crimes against you and your family.

Who can you trust? Many companies take advantage of consumer concern for online privacy by providing so-called "identity and relationship management" services. They ask you to fill out forms with ALL your personal information, and then hand out pieces of it to partner merchant sites. Merchant sites themselves post privacy policies they can't or won't enforce when push comes to shove. And others still leave personal information in poorly secured databases, vulnerable to hacker attacks. This is the opposite of privacy.