If you're doing your holiday shopping online, you may be getting a little more than you bargained for, like losing some of your privacy, according to the Electronic Privacy Information Center - which says that, thanks to certain cookies you're getting while you e-shop, the shops, in turn, may be gleaning where you like to surf, whether you want them to know it or not.
EPIC's "Surfer Beware III" report, released last Friday, says 87 out of the 100 top e-shopping sites surveyed are now using these cookies - small files hitched to your PC letting the sites customize content for you - and find out where you've been in cyberspace lately. The EPIC survey says 35 of the top sites have profile-based advertising technology, against which several watchdog groups have started a campaign, says MSNBC.
The EPIC report also says eighteen of the sites had no pages listing privacy policies, while many of those which were listed were "confusing, incomplete, and inconsistent."
In a related press conference last Friday, EPIC executive director Mark Rotenberg and other privacy watchdog group spokesmen said the lack of so-called access rights, giving consumers the right to see data corporations collect about them, has become a big concern.
"U.S. companies have resisted the right to access, claiming that it's expensive and burdensome to them. But it's a fundamental and fair part of information access," said anti-spam watchdog Junkbusters president Jason Catlett.
