| . | The growth of Internet as a commercial medium has attracted the attention of all marketing agencies. As a high tech medium, Internet offers opportunities for these agencies to tap information on the surfing behaviour of Netizens by planting a "Cookie". The cookies can report back to its owner, the sites visited by you, the time spent on different pages etc. If intelligently analyzed this could provide a "Behavioural Pattern" that would be useful to the marketing agency to forecast the commercial potential of the Netizen. In the simplest usage, this information can be used to deliver customized advertising to the Netizen on the products he may be interested. The privacy enthusiasts however donot like to be watched behind their back and have a serious objection to this practice. There are several cases pending in the courts on this issue and a demand for legislation to ban Cookies is growing. At present the "Privacy" rights of Netizens are normally governed by the legislation or practices concerning "Tapping " of telephone lines. Normally "Tapping" is permitted under a strict procedural regulation mostly as a part of " Crime Investigation". Worldwide, all the Government agencies reserve the right to tap internet
conversations.
Would such a "Restricted Privacy Regime" be beneficial?. It appears that such a regime is a fertile ground for Corruption. The situation in India is worse (compared to USA not China!). While the Supreme Court has held the right of an individual to privacy, and laid down detailed guidelines for the Government to follow in the case of " Phone Tapping", there is no evidence that the guidelines are being followed particularly in the Internet area. We can recall the recent experience of a Delhi customer of VSNL whose E-mails from a specified source was blocked without notice. The telecom guidelines on "landing stations" also have clearly laid down the right of the monitoring agency to listen to and filter internet communication. We can therefore conclude that there is no "Privacy" for E-Mails in India. There is also no Netizen Movement of substance to enforce it. In case we reconcile to the fact that "Absolute Privacy" is not practical, it may be necessary to look at alternative ways by which Privacy rights are respected. Genuine marketing agencies can add value to the surfing experience of individuals if the surfing habits are properly analysed and used to throw up useful information in the form targeted ads. This can be permitted legally subject to a standard privacy policy. "Opt-ins" in such cases should be an option to be exercised and not a default option. The success of such a system would lie in a proper monitoring mechanism that identifies violations and prescribes "Deterrents" not necessarily of the legal kind. This would be best served by voluntary Netizen's groups committed to the cause. This is perhaps a proper solution to the "Privacy threat" rather than "Banning of Cookies" in general. Related
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