AOL/Netscape spies on surfers
Conclusion
The functions we discovered in the Netscape Browser constitute a severe intrusion upon a surfer's privacy, which is scarce anyhow. But this is even worse since users are not warned against this intrusion when starting the aforementioned features.
One may only guess what Netscape uses the transferred data for. However, the information collected, i.e. "user A is interested in B and downloads the corresponding files from server C", in conjunction with the e-mail and IP addresses provides an almost complete profile of the surfer in question. In addition to the notorious spammers, any marketing company should be interested in having access to this data - not to mention government agencies. Incidentally, in November 1998 Netscape was acquired by AOL, the largest on-line service and Internet service provider in the world. Even record labels may want to lay their hands on the data Netscape collects, as downloading illegal MP3 files from the Web is getting more and more popular.
The day we discovered the aforementioned functions, we were not able to have the company comment on them since Netscape is no longer represented in Germany. We can only hope that such snooping activities will come to an end with the Netscape Browser's open source version 6.0, which is still being developed. (jlu/nie)
(Translation by Isolde Gassner. This story is (c) 2000 by IDG Interactive GmbH. All rights reserved.)