DRUG AGENCY TO PLANT 'COOKIES' TO FOLLOW NET USERS

WASHINGTON - The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy has
taken its anti-drug message to the Internet, and it is secretly tracking
those who find it in the process.

Search for drug terms like "grow pot" on some Internet sites, and an ad
banner that pops up from the drug office may drop a "cookie" program in
your computer that tracks your online activities.

"It's sort of spooky," said Internet consultant Richard Smith.

But despite what one critic called "Big Brother" tactics, the White House
drug office says there's nothing surreptitious going on. The computer
cookies are simply tracking its anti-drug media campaign.

"Cookies" are personal identifiers used to track the Web sites that
computer users visit and what they buy. They identify Internet surfers by
the service they are using to get access to the Internet, and can be
matched with other information online to provide personal identification.
Cookies are secretly inserted in personal computers when surfers visit
certain Web sites.

Smith said he inadvertently discovered the U.S. government cookies being
dropped into his computer while doing Internet research for pharmaceutical
companies.

White House ads offering information on marijuana pop up when Internet
users search for certain words connected to drugs on Internet search
engines like AltaVista or Lycos. The banner ads steer users to the
anti-drug site Freevibe.com, which is operated by the White House drug
office. A tracking cookie is inserted in the user's personal computer as
the site is activated.

Although Freevibe's privacy notice states "no information, including your
e-mail address, will be sold or distributed to any other organization," the
site is connected to Doubleclick.com. Officials of Doubleclick, a New York
advertising firm that is one of the largest companies gathering data on
Internet user use, told the Senate Commerce Committee last week it is
developing new products that will profile more than 40 million Internet users.

Freevibe's site says the White House drug office will collect the e-mail
address "only so we can identify your submission." It does not disclose
that it will drop a cookie program in the personal computers of visitors to
the site.

Donald Maple of the White House drug office said the cookie programs are
part of the banner advertising campaign run through the New York
advertising firm Ogilvie and Mather. He said the government is not getting
personal information on site visitors.

Maple admitted one of the anti-drug sites operated by the White House drug
office and visited by 240,000 parents a month seeking information on drug
abuse is itself inserting cookies into the computers of visitors. He said
the drug office was unaware of this until a reporter pointed it out, and
yesterday ordered the contractor to disable the program.