The 463: Inside Tech Policy

Internet Privacy: An Industry Evolution

Yesterday...

Several large technology companies, including Google Inc. and eBay Inc., announced support yesterday for stronger federal regulations to protect consumer privacy on the Internet.

Twelve companies formed an advocacy group, the Consumer Privacy Legislative Forum, to lobby for greater protection of private information, and several members testified yesterday before a House subcommittee.  (Washington Post)

Thoughts (after the jump):

Click Fraud: Just Look for the Crooks with Carpal Tunnel

It's hard enough to keep track of spammers, phishers, sploggers, pirates, badware purveyeurs and the rest of the Web's criminal element.   Now, Internet billionaire and Dallas Mavericks' owner Mark Cuban is urging attention be paid to click fraud.  He says the problem is much worse than most think on his blog (excerpts after the jump):

DOPA Gets a Face

The Deleting Online Predators Acts (DOPA) was just introduced on Wednesday and it already has a face to put to the bill.... From Florida's First Coast News...

(Travus Earl Belden) is behind bars after police say he posed online as a 16-year old girl to lure a teen victim into forced sex.

(The) 27-year-old  is charged with attempted sexual battery on a minor, false imprisonment, and battery. His alleged victim -- a 14-year old Neptune Beach boy....

Police say Belden created a MySpace internet account posing as a 16-year-old girl and chatted for weeks with the 14-year-old victim.

Don't Use Kazaa

We told you about the new organization StopBadware.org last month.  The group just launched its first report that warns consumers about four dangerous Web applications. From StopBadware's blog:

After a month or so of reading feedback from users, researching what others have done, and discussing our guidelines, we’re proud to release our first round of reports, covering Kazaa, MediaPipe, SpyAxe, and Waterfalls 3.

We had many goals in writing these reports. Just to name a few: we want to shed light on bad behavior, and help well-intentioned companies improve their behavior. We also wanted to create information that would be user-friendly- written in a style and with language that would be easy for casual users to understand, so that if they found these reports from a search engine, they’d get the message easily and quickly.

See here for news coverage on the report.

Thousands Tell Stories of Badware

In just a few weeks since its launch, more than a quarter of a million Internet users have visited Stopbadware.org, a new "Neighborhood Watch" initiative against spyware and other malicious software programs. There's also a really cool new ad on the site (which we encourage you to send to your friends) and a toll-free number to report your story (877-nobadware).

Sponsored by Harvard University's Berkman Center and the Oxford Internet Institute, Stopbadware.org is the largest consumer protection initiative combating spyware. The initiative empowers consumers to fight back against badware. It is supported by high-tech companies, including Google, Lenovo and Sun Microsystems. Consumer Reports WebWatch serves as an unpaid special consumer adviser.

Since the launch of stopbadware.org on Jan. 25:

-- 279,339 computer users have visited the site, averaging roughly 14,000 visits per day.

-- Nearly 1,000 have shared their experiences with badware.

-- Nearly 5,000 have joined the site's active community group.

Read more below:

State of the Net: Security

Last week, the Congressional Internet Caucus held it’s second annual State of the Net Conference a loafer’s throw from Capitol Hill.  463 was proud sponsors of the day-long proceeding that attracted about 500 policymakers, staffers, government affairs-types and journalists. Following will be a few posts with quick thoughts on the event…. First, on the security panel...

Don't Trust Anyone on the Internet Over 30

The Internet just got big enough to have a generation gap.  The rift is between those 30-years-olds and up who use the Internet for work, research, shopping and communication and those under 30 who simply live on the Internet.

This became clear to us during a recent online debate about what MySpace is and why it's important among a very savvy group of digital music folks.  Most only understood it from a business perspective but had no idea why any average 17-year-old would ever want to spend time on the site.  Then, as if to illustrate this point to almost a comical extreme, this week, the San Francisco Chronicle ran a once-in-every-generation editorial this week.  The editorial, titled "Lost in MySpace", warns:

Internet Bad... and Good.

Anyone in Internet marketing has probably had to weigh the pros and cons of addressing fears about the Internet versus minimizing them.  In a big way AOL is taking the former route in the UK says the London Times today.

AOL will run a commercial that highlights many of the bad things about the internet — the threat of identity theft, the prevalence of political extremism, the availability of pornography and the devaluing of human life through the trafficking of children.

YOU MAY HAVE ALREADY WON!

Got one of those “I need your help collecting $18 million dollars” scam emails today. While it’s hard to imagine anyone falling for it, the fact that these emails are sent so often means they must. What’s the business model for these email scams? Usually these scam artists seek either personal information or credit card information from those they dupe.

In this case, the domain name from which “Mr. Peter Chang” sent the email was oluchimix.net. This domain had been registered through the domain name company Dotster on Sept. 12. When I emailed “Mr. Peter Chang,” it actually showed up as an email address to a domain called financier.com, which was registered in 1996 and is now through Register.com. The contact person listed for financier.com is:

Spitzing on Spyware

Eliot Spitzer, NY state AG and 2006 gubernatorial candidate, is shifting his target from Wall Street evil doers to purveyors of spyware and adware.  And, while the average computer user may rejoice, the investors of some mainstream Internet companies aren't so pleased.

From an AP article:

"People are fed up with adware and spyware," he said. "They feel as though they've lost control of their computers and they want something to be done.... Hopefully, technology will provide a comprehensive solution at some point but until that time, there needs to be a cop in cyberspace who will stop the most egregious abuses."

One company's stock price has already taken a hit on rumors that it's being investigated....