W3C focus on privacy, not security
By Reuters
Special to CNET NEWS.COM
April 15, 1998, 8:25 a.m. PT
BRISBANE, Australia--Concerns about the security of messages transmitted
on the Internet are no longer valid, the founder of the World Wide Web Tim
Berners-Lee said today.
However, Berners-Lee told the Seventh International World Wide Web
Conference that privacy of information about users was still a top
priority for the international World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), an
organization that oversees the use of the Internet.
"I am very concerned about privacy aspects of the use of the Web at the moment," he said.
The W3C is working on a Platform for Privacy Preference (P3P), which will
allow Web users to dictate how much information is collected by Internet
providers about what sites they visit, what purchases they make, and other
Web habits, Berners-Lee added.
Berners-Lee, who is a W3C director, told the conference in Brisbane that
security on the Internet is now more of a problem for governments because
individuals can communicate in secret.
Cryptography is very, very strong so there are many ways of sending
information across the Internet, according to Berners-Lee, as reported on
Australian Broadcasting's Web site.
"So really it's impossible for somebody else to find out what you're
saying," he said. "In fact, the biggest problem with applying security
isn't that the technology isn't strong enough, it's that governments are
so frightened of it."
"They're very frightened of consumers or terrorists being able to
communicate equally well in a secret way," Berners-Lee noted.
The Web inventor said he is against organizations or governments who seek
to regulate or censor the Internet, saying Web technology tries not to
force a particular policy or view on its users.
I believe if somebody is going to decide what a child should see, then
it's a good idea for that person to be a parent," he said, pointing to
technology that allows children to be locked out of certain sites.
-o-
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Received on Wed Apr 15 22:10:19 1998