ONLINE PRIVACY IN SORE NEED OF LEGISLATION

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The White Houseís Office of National Drug
Control Policy (ONDCP) came under fire recently for tracking users on
federally funded anti-drug Web sites.

Armed with a $12-million advertising budget, the ONDCP bought ad space
on major search engines and directed drug-related searches to federal
sites that collected personal data from users with Internet cookies
via DoubleClick, an online advertising and marketing giant. Cookies
are the small text files stored on personal computers which track
Internet traffic via banner ads or Web sites. This practice has
enraged many online privacy experts and was rightfully discontinued by
the ONDCP after the story broke.

While the ONDCP says it was were only collecting raw statistical data
and that no users were tracked by the planted cookies, any amount of
personal information collected by the government without full consent
- - much less user knowledge - is a violation of federal policy and a
breach of privacy. Federal policy states that the White House and
agency Web sites must have clearly posted privacy policies. Although
the ONDCP has since abandoned cookie use, online privacy remains a
hotly contested issue with implications beyond allegations of
governmental misconduct.

The personal data collected by private powers remains a formidable
threat to privacy. The ONDCP has maintained close ties to private
interests before. Earlier this year, drug czar Barry McCaffrey, the
top official at the ONDCP, came under fire for his clandestine program
of selling back advertising space to television networks who agreed to
integrate anti-drug messages into prime-time programming. These covert
propaganda programs lend little credibility to ONDCP or its message.
On the cookie matter, the fact that top leaders of the ONDCP had no
idea personal data was being profiled on their sites until the press
broke the story warrants concern.

The ONDCP is given unnecessary free reign and uses too many tax
dollars in its prohibitory drug messages. Whether allegations of
misuse of personal data in both private or governmental instances are
substantiated, new legislative attention is required to protect
consumers from watchful eyes of both governmental and private power on
the Internet.

Earlier this year, Michigan Attorney General Jennifer Granholm accused
DoubleClick of violating Michiganís Consumer Protection Act. Granholm
said in a statement, "Forget Big Brother. Truly, Big Browser appears
to have arrived in the form of an Internet corporate giant. Companies
like DoubleClick take advantage of the technology to rob people of
their privacy."

DoubleClick has also recently begun combining its more than 90 million
personal Internet user profiles with hard data, such as names and addresses.

Its practices differ little from other online companies like Yahoo!,
AOL or Microsoft in their zeal to collect as much user data as
possible. Through private efforts, the Internet has become a maze of
interconnected data collecting mechanisms showing all the signs of
significant intensification.

The privacy of online users is at stake, especially with the wave of
fizzled e-commerce burnouts selling data to larger corporations. Data
that was once used by independent companies is now being amassed by
Internet conglomerates at a frenzied pace. New privacy legislation
must be enacted before consumers are put at further risk. New measures
must also be taken to reign in the Office of National Drug Control
Policy.