Subj: Online Privacy: Perspectives of Net Nanny Software, Inc. From: Nika Herford, Net Nanny Software, Inc., 425-688-3008, nikah@netnanny.com To: Internet Caucus Advisory Committee WILL TECHNOLOGY TOOLS ASSIST USERS IN PROTECTING THEIR PRIVACY? Private information has always been subject to varying degrees of collection and dissemination, but the Internet makes this process much faster and more efficient than ever before. Individuals often supply it freely themselves as they surf the Web, enter contests, sign up for services or communicate with others through email, chat and other interactive programs. Businesses, government agencies and other organizations post information and/or share it, often without an individual’s knowledge, permission or concern. Information sharing has its pros and cons, but most people agree that if given the choice, they would prefer to exercise some measure of control over access to their private information. The idea that marketers, insurance companies, and others may be aggregating personally identifiable information to build dossiers on individuals is unsettling. What can people do to protect their private information and online activities from being watched and used without their authorization? There are a variety of technology tools available today to help control the solicitation and distribution of such personal information as names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, social security numbers, surfing habits, credit card numbers, school names and designated documents. Deployed on a home computer, browser or online service, these tools vary in their scope and flexibility, but all can be helpful aids to concerned online users. For example, Net Nanny, which is installed on an individual computer, prompts the computer administrator to enter personal information into a form and assign the desired “actions” that the software should take in the event that an attempt is made to disclose personal information. Protected through the use of an administrator password, these actions include: shutting down the online session; masking out certain words, phrases and numbers; sending warning messages; and providing a time-stamped audit trail of specific attempts to send information. Regardless of which online service, browser or online environment a person uses, Net Nanny watches over his/her online activities and exercises the designated action when necessary. By providing several options, from lenient warning messages to strict shutdown controls, Net Nanny allows the administrator to choose the action that best addresses his/her own unique situation. Internet browsers and programs like Net Nanny that log Web site visits, are effective complements to the FTC’s new rule to protect the privacy of children under 13. Designed to give parents control over the collection, sharing and retention of their children’s personal information, the power of the FTC’s rule is enhanced if parents know which Web sites they should examine for potential privacy violations. Browsers also offer the ability to prompt users if sites are attempting to install “cookies” on their machines and prevent these “information collectors” from installing if the user decides not to accept them. While many tools provide password protection for their controls, it should be noted that browsers don’t password-protect Web site history files, temporary Internet files or cookie settings. Some online service providers allow master account holders to limit access to interactive programs such as chat, instant messaging, newsgroups and email and prevent the creation of online profiles. While these approaches are somewhat limiting in that they either allow full access or none at all, they are important tools to help prevent disclosure or solicitation of personal information and are realistic for an environment that must cater to many subscribers. A particularly effective granular control offered by some online service providers is the restriction of incoming and outgoing email to a certain list of email addresses. This feature helps ensure that users are only communicating with people they know and trust. And for people who wish to surf the Web without being tracked, clean their entire computer system of Web-related activity, and send anonymous email, they can try tools offered by companies such as Anonymizer. WHAT NEW TECHNOLOGIES ARE ON THE HORIZON? P3P A privacy standard called P3P, which is currently in development, will allow users to set up privacy preferences through their browser, which will control the use and dissemination of personal information according to a user’s specifications. It works by comparing the privacy policy of an accessed Web site to a user’s privacy preferences. If the policy conflicts with the preferences, the technology prompts the user to decide whether to override the preferences or surf elsewhere. DIGITAL SIGNATURES, SMART CARDS, ENCRYPTION AND THE MISSING LINK: BIOMETRICS Increasingly, computer users interested in protecting their privacy are turning to security technologies such as smart cards, digital signatures, encryption and an emerging category known as biometrics. Each technology fills an important niche and all improve upon the standard user ID and password model for securing data and preventing unauthorized access to systems. ***Smart cards*** are a convenient, credit card sized media that can both store and process data. Often used to verify people for log on purposes, access to medical information, credit/debit bank privileges and access control, the smart card’s security is typically a combination of PIN numbers and cryptography keys. While the technology is highly portable and relatively secure, smart cards have no mechanism for binding a physical person to a card for the purpose of truly authenticating an individual. ***Digital Signatures*** enable one or more parties to securely sign documents electronically. Important documents ranging from contracts, affidavits, or anything requiring a person’s legal signature are not protected from being read, but are prevented from being altered (even if one “bit” is changed). Valid only in states, provinces and countries that recognize them as binding and legal, digital signatures are vulnerable to prying eyes as they travel over the unsecured public network. Therefore, encryption is used to scramble its content for transit. A digital signature requires a trusted third party or certificate authority to authenticate the digital signature if it is challenged. A certificate authority, besides authenticating a digital signature, is a repository for a person’s public encryption key. It is the combination of a digital signature and encryption that authenticates and secures a document from being read or altered in transit and after decryption, from being deliberately altered. A digital signature cannot bind a physical person to a digital signature, but rather relies exclusively upon the secrecy of the password. Similarly, encryption cannot bind a physical person to an encryption “key”, because it also relies upon the secrecy of the password. While it cannot validate or verify that A or B created or modified the document, it fills a crucial role by protecting data from Point A to Point B. ***Biometrics*** is a viable yet emerging technology that is poised to enhance the solutions above and provide a host of other innovative implementations where true authentication of the user is needed. Biometrics involves the authentication of an individual based on a unique physiological characteristic, such as fingerprint, voice, iris, or a behavioral characteristic, such as typing rhythm. Net Nanny’s patented biometric solution, BioPassword?, leverages the massive install base of user IDs and passwords and adds another simple and cost-effective element to protect privacy – keystroke dynamics. The opportunities for incorporating biometrics into our everyday lives are vast – e-commerce, home security, online banking, gun safety, car security, ATMs, phones. The days of compromised passwords and incomplete solutions are drawing to a close. Combining a biometric (what you are) with a smart card (what you have) and PIN number (what you know) creates a secure scenario that is virtually impossible for someone to crack. It finally solves the problem of binding a physical person to a device or signature. Some people are concerned that biometrics itself may endanger people’s privacy. The idea of storing a fingerprint, voiceprint, iris scan or some other uniquely identifiable characteristic in a database is an uncomfortable proposition for some. Like many new technologies, there will be a period of adjustment, especially for the more intrusive biometric solutions. BioPassword is perhaps the least intrusive solution on the horizon because it leverages the acceptance most people have for typing. It simply asks a user to type in his user ID and password 15 times initially and the software takes a mathematical measurement of the individual’s typing rhythm. Thereafter a user need only type in his user ID and password once to gain entry. Voice and facial recognition software are two other biometric solutions that will probably enjoy more widespread acceptance than fingerprints, iris or retinal scans. Privacy protection requires diligence on the part of the individual and constant innovation on the part of technology companies. Implementation of forthright business practices and oversight by watchful governmental agencies and other watchdog groups will help establish acceptable strategies for collecting and managing data online. User-friendly filters and authentication technologies will continue to evolve, but the key is encouraging people to educate themselves about the issues and pay attention to where they are going both online and offline and with whom they are sharing their information. The irony is that the biggest culprits may very well be our own neighborhood grocery stores or banks. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES http://www.netnanny.com/family http://www.getnetwise.org http://www.anonymizer.com http://www.ftc.gov/kidsprivacy P3P Platform for Privacy Preferences http://www.p3p.org RSA security http://www.rsasecurity.com/ (encryption) PGP international page http://www.pgpi.org/ (encryption) Biometric Research http://biometrics.cse.msu.edu/ International Biometric Group http://www.biometricgroup.com BioAPI http://www.bioapi.org Smart Card Industry Association SCIA http://www.scia.org/ CardTech/SecurTech http://www.ctst.com/ Smart Card Resource Center http://www.smart-card.com/