You may not like it if your cookies or program downloads show more of you than you want - but the government may be saying tough tiddy-boom-boom, with a little help from the corporations who helped put the Digital Millennium Copyright Act together. On the other hand, there may be a little loophole for you, according to reports out of the Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference here. Content owners may be using encryption to stop illicit copying, and privacy advocates may fear that future protection under the DMCA means criminalizing any tinkering with a program that exposes your private habits or other information - but Wired says the DMCA leaves room for a few ways to beat it. You can, the magazine says, do it if the software leaks personally identifying information about you without giving you the chance to say don't you dare, so long as you're not breaking any other law. And with some courts ruling so-called shrink-wrap licensing (which doesn't require signatures) as being binding, you might be able to use the DMCA loophole if you're nailed for violating those agreements. "We're getting tortured by laws that are inherently incoherent," said the American Civil Liberties Union's associate director, Barry Steinhardt.
LOS ANGELES - A year after it rolled out the first Internet-only credit card, FirstNet Financial now boasts over fifty thousand cardholders, with over one thousand new cards issued weekly. "At this rate, the FirstNet card will soon become a premier card for buying products and services online," says FirstNet CEO Eric DePrano. FirstNet, like standard credit cards, offers no annual fees and quick online approval, "but what really generates attention are the tremendous decreases in fraud and chargebacks for merchants," DePrano says. And, you can track your purchases and billing statements online - whether you're a customer or a merchant - at the FirstNet Website, www.firstnetcard.com.
--- Compiled by Humphrey Pennyworth
