A Right to Online Privacy?

Normally, privacy is not a thing to be dictated externally, but a relationship between you and whomever you're dealing with in the outside world. You choose not to interact much -- and that's fine. Yet at the same time you might open an e-mail that takes you to a phishing site, or if you download questionable file-sharing software you might get a piece of malware that you'd like less than a cookie. There's more to the Internet, and more risks, than just what's on the Web.

So, I don't see commerce itself and cookies as the most serious privacy issues. If your privacy's going to be invaded or your identity stolen, I don't see cookies as the source of the incursion. Rather than a company, computer criminals are the real risk. Other real privacy worries are when someone steals your identity or poses as you....those have little relationship to cookies-and-browsers.

On the browsers, you can try your best, and you do have attractive options. My colleague Ryan Radia notes the following:

Firefox-which has attained 19 percent global market share, despite not coming pre-installed with any major OS-offers numerous add-ons that allow for selective cookie permissions. (CookieSafe is one such add-on, and been downloaded more than 300,000 times).

For Internet Explorer 7, Web site-specific cookie permissions are built in, and can be accessed via Advanced Privacy Settings.

Similarly, ad-blocking software lets users browse the Web without seeing intrusive advertisements. Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox come pre-installed with basic pop-up blockers, and the popular Adblock (available for IE7, Firefox and Safari) is able to block most interstitials, banner ads and flash ads.

That said, I still hold that if what you want is privacy, the Internet is probably not the network for you. The Internet was designed as an open system, not a proprietary one, so no one is really standing in a position to offer you privacy. Just this past week there were news reports of a major new vulnerability on the Internet, and we don't really know what lies ahead. We should expect better forms of liability and insurance to emerge in the online world to deal with the reality that nothing is 100 percent safe.

To "insist" that browsers contain a certain set of features is a discussion that quickly dips into the regulatory and political worlds. Your question, however, contains the answer: consumer choice. As you state there are many browser options and consumers are able to make choices based on features offered by Browser X or Browser Y.

As demand for greater user empowered control grows, we believe the market will respond and build in these features.

The reality, however, is that most consumers take the path of least resistance and just use what comes bundled with their computer. The first step in getting consumers to make more informed choices is user education.