“On the internet no one knows you’re a dog,” mused one canine to another in a famous 1993 New Yorker cartoon. Today, though, thanks to techniques ranging from Web browser “cookies” to sophisticated data mining, they may know you’re a dog-and even which breed.
Companies can combine information voluntarily submitted by users with data automatically transmitted by a user’s Web browsers and other software to provide a detailed picture of an individual. In some cases, interested parties can discover detailed personal information about people who visit their Web sites or use their software.
Montreal-based Zero Knowledge Systems (ZKS) believes it has the solution for people worried about online privacy. In December the company unveiled Freedom, a system that uses sophisticated encryption software and servers to cloak the true identity of an Internet user behind a pseudonym that no one other than the user-not even the company-knows. While there have been previous efforts to provide anonymous Web and e-mail access, they have been far less sophisticated than Freedom, according to analysts. “ZKS Freedom is the strongest and broadest privacy-enhancing technology I’ve seen,” says Jason Catlett, a privacy advocate and president of Junkbusters, a company that helps consumers reduce the number of online and offline “junk” messages they receive.
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