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Sites Wary of Adopting P3P

technogamy writes: "CNN is reporting on the industry's take on P3P, the W3C's Platform for Privacy Preferences.According to the article, the W3C is expected by April to formally adopt P3P -- of course, as many of you are aware, Microsoft's IE6 already includes an implementation of the client side of P3P. 'Because Microsoft's browser checks for P3P, sites risk getting flagged if they don't adopt it.' P3Pizing (or 'pethripizing') a complex site can evolve into a Herculean task...! (See also EPIC's critique of P3P.)"

154 comments

  1. I worked on this.. by Sc00ter · · Score: 3, Interesting
    At my old job (before getting laid off) at an internet advertising company this was top priority. P3P is actually really cool, and it wasn't all THAT hard to get it implemented. It probably would have been faster for us if we didn't have a sucky developer.


    I wonder if doing it with a module for Apache would be a good idea.. mod_p3p, then it reads your privacy stuff from a config file. That sure would save a lot of time for a lot of people.

    1. Re:I worked on this.. by nzkoz · · Score: 2

      Maybe not an apache module, but libraries for perl, python, PHP, JSP etc. The less work it is for the actual web developers the more likely our privacy concerns are going to be respected.

      --
      Cheers Koz
  2. Damn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    It's a shame that Mozilla doesn't yet support this. Sure, it's not a standard yet, but Microsoft had no problem jumping on it and getting it out and in use (in 90% of the browsers out there, no less). Oh well, you get what you pay for, I guess.

    1. Re:Damn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      uuh...you didnt pay for IE did you ? you downloaded it for $0. does that mean you got what you paid for (nothing) ?

    2. Re:Damn by Stone+Rhino · · Score: 2

      But you DID pay for windows. Unless you're a 1337 w4r3z d00d. Where do you think Micro$hit gets the money for their world domi^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hbrowser?

      --


      Remember, there were no nuclear weapons before women were allowed to vote.
    3. Re:Damn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The cost of IE is included in the price of Windows, along with all subsequent (and frequent) security updates therein.

    4. Re:Damn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      uuh...im running it on solaris. who said anything about IE for windows ?

    5. Re:Damn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, and you don't have P3P integration in your browser either, dipshit. I stated the original post about IE for Windows because that's what it applied to.

    6. Re:Damn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I hope you're not speaking for all MS IE users, cos you seem pretty brain dead.

    7. Re:Damn by w_crossman · · Score: 1

      Actually, Mozilla now has the backend for P3P in place. It isn't ready for end users yet, but I believe most or all of it will be in place for 1.0. See the Mozilla bug relating to P3P here.

  3. Profiles for browsers by ZaneMcAuley · · Score: 1, Insightful

    It would be nice to have this customisable to a list of websites, on one website you could have TEXT ONLY, on others the IMAGES ON etc...

    --
    ----- Whats wrong with this picture? http://www.revoh.org:1234/whatswrong
  4. Hi Nikki! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We love to eat Channa and Potato Pancakes! With Tobasco! Thanks!

    1. Re:Hi Nikki! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's Tabasco.

  5. I can't be the only one... by oGMo · · Score: 3, Funny

    Am I the only one who saw the headline and wondered whether P3P was some new file distribution fad? ;-) I can see it now. P3P: Share music with two friends at once!

    OK, sue me, it's been a long day...

    --

    Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage

  6. Mozilla by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Mozilla also used to have an implementation of P3P in that the cookie section of preferences had an option to accept or reject cookies based on a sites privacy policy which I assume was derived from the P3P standard, but as of 0.9.9 and current nightlies the preference has been removed because "it didn't work anyway". Whether this "not working" refered to the implentation or the fact that no real sites have P3P policies so it is misleading, I don't know.

  7. Privacy Protection...? Probably... by KeatonMill · · Score: 2, Insightful
    The thing that I wonder about is HOW people ensure that these privacy claims are followed through with. I trust that, for most sites, the want to protect privacy and the drive to do so is there, but despite eTrust and despite (eventually) P3P, I'm still getting lots and lots of junk mail even though I recently changed e-mail addresses. These standardized privacy ratings are great, since they provide a common scale from which to view the results, don't get me wrong here. But I just think that there should be a better way of, if not ENFORCING privacy, at least downgrading site's ratings if they don't keep true to their word. (It's also possible it's the ads on the site collecting the data, not the site itself)

    I guess what the whole internet needs is a /. type moderation system.

  8. Why bother for private sites? by Bonker · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I have to say that this is a way of trying to shut out non-commercial sites from the web. For example, my site is a privately run anime fansite with nothing for sale and no adds. Despite this, it gets flagged for not having a compliant privacy policy.

    Now, I suppose that I could make a privacy policy for my site, but why should I have to bother when I'm obviously not in any kind of business, let alone selling personal information?

    The web should be for *everyone*, not just businesses with large advertising budgets. Shutting out sites who don't have privacy policies posted is FUD tactics against little guys, plain and simple.

    --
    The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
    1. Re:Why bother for private sites? by Sc00ter · · Score: 2
      I don't get any kind of warning in IE6.

    2. Re:Why bother for private sites? by los+furtive · · Score: 2

      But are you collecting any information such as email addresses? Even if your current intent is innocuous (email updates), what happens two years down the road when money is getting tight and someone offers to buy that list? Of course P3P isn't going to stop that, but it helps promote privacy as being important in the public's conscience...This is definitely a step up, and not a step down, and shouldn't be poopooed as a tactic against the little guy. It's a tactic for the little guy.

      --

      I'm a writer, a poet, a genius, I know it. I don't buy software, I grow it.

    3. Re:Why bother for private sites? by corps_inc · · Score: 0

      As for my e-mail, I don't care I'm swaping ir once a year. My private e-mail doesn't get to any site that requires it. Register shitguy@anymail.whatever I wonder who will pay for that.

    4. Re:Why bother for private sites? by los+furtive · · Score: 1

      Yes, junkmail accounts are a great utility, but if your original intent was to read the mail you signed up for (a newsgroup for example) then most likely you would have given your legitimate address, wouldn't you? Now what happens when the guy running that newsgroup changes his mind and sells all those accounts? Sure P3P won't stop him from doing that in a court of law, but if he goes against his publicised word then it help make him look bad. As for changing email accounts every year, it's no different than changing apartments every year:sooner or later you realize that it's your own dang fault that you've lost touch with everyone ad get the urge to settle down.

      --

      I'm a writer, a poet, a genius, I know it. I don't buy software, I grow it.

    5. Re:Why bother for private sites? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      How the hell does this guy get modded up so high when he's talking out his ass?


      1. His site doesn't show a warning in IE6 like he says it does.


      2. If your site doesn't have a p3p policy you don't get "shut out" you get a little do not enter symbol on your IE6 window in the bottom, barly big enough to see, and does not stop you from viewing the site.

    6. Re:Why bother for private sites? by Fweeky · · Score: 2

      > I don't get any kind of warning in IE6.

      You'll get a little icon in the status bar you can click on if it blocks something based on your settings; look at View -> Privacy Report otherwise.

      Yahoo is a good example to try it out on, since it seems to specify just about everything.

    7. Re:Why bother for private sites? by WildBeast · · Score: 1

      well your site runs fine and even if it doesn't have a compliant privacy policy it'll still run fine.

      If however you use cookies on your website, then IE will put a little (not even visible) warning about the fact that you don't have a privacy policy.

    8. Re:Why bother for private sites? by SuperBug · · Score: 1

      That would be because you're trying to issue cookies, or have third-party cookies getting issued for some reason. Either that or you are using "unsatisfactory" cookies.

      Either way, ONLY IN THE MEDIUM or MEDIUM-HIGH PRIVACY SETTINGS, should you NOT be flagging IE 6.0 if all you do is issue "first-party" cookies.

      --
      --SuperBug
  9. What about Slashdot? by los+furtive · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm sure it's members would like to know what they have to say about it. How far up the priority list is this one CmdrTaco? And what does Katz have to say about it?

    --

    I'm a writer, a poet, a genius, I know it. I don't buy software, I grow it.

  10. Hope this dies by Pussy+Is+Money · · Score: 2
    Conceptually, the biggest problem with P3P is that it presupposes that the browser is already in control of sensitive and confidential information. This jibes perfectly with the vision behind schemes like Passport and product activation.

    Practically, the system is a nightmare to configure. If this thing ever gets widespread adoption I am sure we will see a surge of privacy consultants and third party privacy management tools.

    --
    Pushin' 'n dealin', shovin' 'n stealin'
  11. Re:P3P is DEAD DEAD DEAD by Mayor+McPenisman · · Score: 0

    Hey, I want to steal this FP thunder:

    Could people who read /. and have interesting stories to post just respond to the current FP and post the link?

    I know that interesting people read /. and I want to make reading /. a useful experience again. So do me this favor.

    --
    [[Ay fukkand lyke ane furious Fornicatour]]
  12. Re:P3P is DEAD DEAD DEAD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Many people have started to rely on m o n o l i n u x for all their Linux needs.

    Just a thought.

    - Blair

  13. Mixed thoughts.. by steppin_razor_LA · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I haven't read the full specifications -- so take anything I write with a grain of salt. I've spent years building web applications, authored a popular anti-spam package, and have done some work building an advertising filtering & privacy enhancement proxy server-based package.

    It seems to me that a better approach would be something like this (call it Personal Information Widget):

    User puts all of their personal information into some form of a "wallet" (yes - I know there are technologies similar to this) -- the information resides on their computer not in a passport on a third party server.

    When a user goes to a site and wishes to sign up for registration, to purchase something, etc -- there should be a mechanism where that site is able to formulate a list of the fields that it wants + requires for registration. The site will send this (i.e. XML) to the Personal Information Widget.

    The PIW will pop a window on the user's screen showing them what information the site wants + requires. The other can then choose to "deny" "allow all" "allow required" or "custom".

    If they deny -- end of transaction.
    Allow all -- give the site everything it wants
    Allow required - give the site only required fields
    Custom - chose to give the site information different than in your profile.

    This sort of approach would solve one of the major problems of building registration-based sites -- the pain in the ass factor of getting people to type in their information for the Xth time -- without doing anything sneaky about privacy.

    In an ideal world, I would be able to choose to allow cookies that are required for a web application to funciton, but deny cookies used to track my viewing habits (especially across multiple sites). I don't think that a "protocol" can really solve this problem though.

    Once a site uses cookies, they inherently have the ability to track you -- whether or not that is there intent -- this protocol doesn't really protect your privacy.

    I'm not really opposed to cookies -- as a web developer, it is painful for me to imagine coding without them! That said, I don't like the idea of someone tracking my usage habits across multiple sites and then potentially correlating that back w/ registration information to me.

    I tend to disallow third party cookies. I know that this breaks a number of 1x1 pixel tracking tools -- but this same sort of technology could be ran off the web servers of the clients or if it was really necessary to outsource it -- you could use DNS (i.e. tracking.yourcompany.com points to webtrendslive.com ) to limit the tracking cookies to a single domain.

    You can disallow third party cookies and protect your privacy that way w/o this extra layer of technology added.

    I am a priori (guess I'm being closed minded) opposed to anything that facilitates that automatic transfer of information. I just can't wait to see someone find an exploit....

    --
    Evolution: love it or leave it
    1. Re:Mixed thoughts.. by mdubinko · · Score: 1

      When a user goes to a site and wishes to sign up for registration, to purchase something, etc -- there should be a mechanism where that site is able to formulate a list of the fields that it wants + requires for registration. The site will send this (i.e. XML) to the Personal Information Widget.

      Hmmm sounds like W3C XForms would be a great way to tag individual 'fields' with the type of personal information requested...

      --
      --- Learn XForms today: http://xformsinstitute.com
    2. Re:Mixed thoughts.. by steppin_razor_LA · · Score: 1

      I'm glad that thought is being given to a standard that defines a standard for a personal information object -- I'm just not sure that I agree with what the plans are to use that information.

      --
      Evolution: love it or leave it
    3. Re:Mixed thoughts.. by GigsVT · · Score: 1

      I don't like it.

      Suppose someone crafts a javascipt or java overlay that covers up the top part of the window where it asks what you want to send.

      It could appear to only want your name or email or something simple, and be in fact requesting all your info.

      There have been exploits similar to this, to trick people into setting something as their homepage in IE. It basically says, "Hi, welcome to my site" and there is an OK button. When you click it, it resets your homepage to some spammy site. The way it worked was that it overlaid the "do you want to set your homepage to this" with another window that said the innocous message.

      It's just too easy to social engineer "one click personal information" IMHO.

      --
      I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
    4. Re:Mixed thoughts.. by steppin_razor_LA · · Score: 1

      I'm not proposing a HTML based interface that would pop up for the user when making these decisions. This would be Windows/XWindows/Mac based GUI application -- probably built into the browser. I think that it would be difficult to code a java applet or some other HTML that would pop up and obfuscate a portion of another window. For one thing, you need to know exactly where the "PIW" is sitting on the user's screen -- which by itself is probably not possible. Then you would need to be able to render out an interface that would obfuscate just a portion of the message.

      --
      Evolution: love it or leave it
    5. Re:Mixed thoughts.. by GigsVT · · Score: 1

      The pop up that asks if you want to change your homepage was a GUI element, part of IE itself, look into it. It is possible, and it has been done.

      --
      I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
  14. Standard Microsoft by CrazyJim0 · · Score: 1

    They make a technology incredibly hard to use, so only people trained by Microsoft can use it.

    1. Re:Standard Microsoft by Sc00ter · · Score: 2
      Nice troll.. Microsoft didn't invent this p3p thing.. perhaps you missed "W3C's Platform for Privacy Preferences" in the article.. It's a standard, Microsoft was just the first to implement the client side of it.

    2. Re:Standard Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually this sounds exactly like dirty Open Source hippies.

    3. Re:Standard Microsoft by corps_inc · · Score: 0

      I bet you're one of M$ fuckups

    4. Re:Standard Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nope. I have used Linux and FreeBSD. I gave them both a fair chance, and they didn't serve my needs or wants. I also don't like the attitude of the developers in general. So I use Windows 2000.

    5. Re:Standard Microsoft by Tony+Hoyle · · Score: 2

      Whether it is a w3c standard has nothing to do with whether MS invented it (They didn't if the working documents are to be believed).

      For example, I know that XPath was invented by MS (the guy who invented it mentioned it at an MSDN roadshow I went to)... it's also a w3c standard.

      AFAIK Any w3c member can propose a standard, and if they have enough clout/money it will be adopted.

  15. The problem with P3P is... by Dr+Kool,+PhD · · Score: 2, Informative

    P3P has absolutely no Application-Server/Scripting support. It's just a
    simple XML-File that tells the User what (personal) data the Website
    collects, and is Requested with "hard-coded" relative URL's.
    Assume a PHP Website with URL-based Session's. A User Request the Homepage
    (/index.phtml) - he's anonymous, collected data is anonymous. The (static)
    P3P File tells the User that the collected data is anon. Well, now the User
    logs-in via a Form-Submit and reloads the Page (/index.phtml). The
    information is set in the PHP-Session, the User is shown other
    (personalized) Content, but the P3P-File is still the same, telling the
    user, that the collected data is still anonymous - this is (or may be) wrong
    now.

    P3P has no mechanism to handle this case, in P3P you can only set a
    different policy for (sub-)folders (differrent URI's). The problem is, that
    the GET Request is absolutely the same, it doesn't matter if the user is
    logged-in or anonymous (well, it would be a security hole, if someone is
    able to find out, if a user is logged-in when (s)he takes a look at the URL,
    hm?).

    Sure, it's possible to copy all "templates" to another subfolder and link
    logged-in users to this one, but why should I do so? The advantage of using
    templates (a I define them) is that they just show any content. They don't
    care if this content is personalized or not. The content is "prepared" by
    the "business logic" - programmed in PHP - and stored in a database. This
    way, I'm able to use the same "templates" for logged-in and anonymous
    users - well, half the work to do...

    1. Re:The problem with P3P is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      nice cut and paste job

    2. Re:The problem with P3P is... by Fweeky · · Score: 4, Informative

      "in P3P you can only set a different policy for (sub-)folders (differrent URI's)"

      Uhm, no, you can specify policies for URI's, methods (GET/POST/PUT/DELETE etc) and cookies (including name, value, domain and even content).

      For example:

      <POLICY-REF about="/P3P/UserPolicy.xml">
      <COOKIE-INCLUDE name="loggedin" value="*" domain="*" path="*"/>
      </POLICY-REF>

      If you really can't describe your case:

      1. Generate the headers dynamically based on whether they're logged in or not.
      2. Generate the P3P dynamically based on whether they're logged in or not.
      3. Just describe the case for logged in users, since your anonymous logging is likely just a subset of that anyway

      And, of course, talk to the peeps on the P3P ml and see if you can get it fixed in version 2.

  16. Re:test of page widening by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The page looks fine here. Maybe your browser is shitty and/or broken?

  17. A question... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I don't know anything about P3P, and reading the website for the standard didn't help me answer this question.

    So I'll ask Slashdot people:

    What's to keep a site from lying or misrepresenting its usage policies?

    And if the answer is nothing, then what the hell use is P3P? It seems that it doesn't affect me at all: I'll still refuse to send cookies to certain site, not keep cookies stored, and encrypt things.

    1. Re:A question... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "What's to keep a site from lying or misrepresenting its usage policies?"

      From a technical standpoint, nothing. Pretty much the same as in RL. However, you now have a neat way of clubbing companies that screw you from a legal standpoint -- you have a signed certificate that they offered you agreement X at time Y. If they share it, they're legally liable.

  18. Re:test of page widening by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I am using IE, which is by far the superior browser. Unfortunately, it also has a bug with regard to this.

  19. Re:I am looking for a true_girlfriend by Lunar82 · · Score: 0

    Like the other guy said, you're looking in the wrong place. Everyone knows that all the hot chicks are on k5.

  20. this shows the hidden costs of monopolies by discogravy · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    whether MS's browser monopoly is legal or not, this shows the hidden costs of monopolies in general. A lot of webpage serving is done on *nix boxes running apache -- machines that could surf the websites they're serving, because IE isn't available on that platform -- and because MS's monopoly of browsers (even fucking slashdot shows most readers use IE,) this puts MS in a powerful position to dictate what they consider important and proper. This isn't even about money, although I'm sure it'll cost a lot of money to pay to get various sites to comply, this is about effort and choices. As a webmaster, I don't want someone else dictating when I have to change my site's design, and I certainly don't want someone telling me that I have to do something. This is probably just the contrarian in me, and for all I know, p3p is the wave of the future and The One True Way and I'm a fool for not having done it already, but hey, it's my website and I'd like to fucking make decisions all on my own, thanks anyway, MS.

    Support alternate browsers (like opera and mozilla,) if you're a Windows user.

    1. Re:this shows the hidden costs of monopolies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Uh, where the hell did this troll come from? If you don't want to support p3p, don't. It would be nice if you supported the w3c standards but just like there's nothing forcing you to serve documents in html, there's nothing forcing you to use p3p. By the way, before you get too into IE alternatives, be sure to note that other browsers want to support p3p as well. Mozilla has partial p3p support now, with decent support to be available by 1.0. Full p3p support in Mozilla is scheduled for post-1.0 work (bug 62399).

  21. Re:I am looking for a girlfriend1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    (It's me again, the girlfriend seeker)

    You mean ass raping like in Pulp Fiction, when they played that cool music background? I don't think CmdrTaco would do that. He's not a bad person.. those who ass rape are the trolls, usually, with all their goatse references.

    Regards,
    Trey Parker

  22. l337 sp34k by metalhed77 · · Score: 5, Funny

    can we be l337 and call this new P3P technology 'Pep'

    --
    Photos.
    1. Re:l337 sp34k by sulli · · Score: 1

      Good idea. In due course, P3P5.1 will be released, and then we can all have a refreshing beverage.

      --

      sulli
      RTFJ.
    2. Re:l337 sp34k by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I always found leet speak annoying, but the other day I was playing with magnetic letters with my young child, ran out of some commonly used letters (for instance, the a, e, l and t in "elite speak" itself are very common and thus used up quickly) and was forced to resort the magnetic numbers -- which my child had little problem comprehending.

  23. Simple solutions by david.johns · · Score: 2, Interesting

    One of the criticisms of this is that it doesn't have any enforcement behind it.

    There's nothing to stop the industry, or me, or all of us who run websites, from just saying, "Sure, we respect virtually everything about your privacy!" and then selling the hell out of your information.

    So, for those of us for whom it would be a pain - we have two easy choices. We can a) ignore people who bother to use it 'cuz it sucks or b) adopt the most private P3P policies possible, and then don't worry about them.

    The real problem this will have on the developer end is having the P3P options mean something. If there's no reason (legislation, for instance) for big business to respect their own P3P policies, why should I pretend that mine have anything to do with reality?

    1. Re:Simple solutions by steve_l · · Score: 2, Informative

      there is already someone with a new token called 'everything else here is untrue' or words to that effect, so you can have all the statements about how well you adhere to privacy rules, which the browser believes, followed by this disclaimer, which IE ignores.

      result, it thinks you respect privacy, you get to do what you want *and* your P3P privacy statement is actually honest.

      what the US needs is the EU data protection act.

  24. Re:I am looking for a girlfriend1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hi Lunar82,

    I'm sure there are some cute geek girls here. They just have to read my message. And anyway, I'm not sure the situation in K5 is better. Although Anne Marie used to write there, I didn't notice any other cute girls in that site.

    Maybe you can recommend me on another site? I wish I could find a place with desperate girls, as I'm pretty desperate myself. But what- I don't want girls who are desperate because they are too ugly, fat or psychotic. I want girls who are desperate because of sheer bad luck, so I'll be able to be their savior.

    Regards,
    Trey Parker.

  25. Definition of "Privacy" by Taco+Cowboy · · Score: 1

    You said:

    "P3P is actually really cool, and it wasn't
    all THAT hard to get it implemented."

    Yes, implementation may be easy, but would you enlightened us as to the COST of the implementation of P3P ?

    The thing is, do you have to SPECIFY a "privacy rule" just to state that your site "respects" the visitors' privacy ?

    It's kinda like sholving legalise to the throat to the WEB scene.

    I know lawyers are used to the legalise thingy - like "off the record" thing, but for the visitors and those who are operating websites (commercials or otherwise), do we HAVE to state our "privacy rules" before allowing others to surf into our domain ?

    What kind of world will we be living in, if we apply the P3P rule into our real lives ? Will we have to tell ALL THE VISITORS to our offices, home, or even recreation events that we respect their privacy, that there will be no hidden cameras or microphone recording their movement / speech, and there will be no PI (private investigator) tracing where they come from and where they will be going to, and so on ?

    Think of the consequences, will ya, please ?

    --
    Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
    1. Re:Definition of "Privacy" by Sc00ter · · Score: 2
      Well.. at the internet advertising company we already had a privacy policy set in place.. How they got to it, I have no idea. As for the sites that ran our ads, they didn't have to do anything, since our p3p code was in our http headers. As far as running it on your own site, I wouldn't know

    2. Re:Definition of "Privacy" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We have a policy in place as well.

      It's called, "Don't ask, don't tell".

      Seems to work pretty well so far.

    3. Re:Definition of "Privacy" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm working on a research project associated with P3P.

      The P3P is partially there to ensure that companies can be held liable if they break their privacy agreements. After a big more poking, P3P is likely to provide a neat little signed certificate for both the server "The client agreed to this agreement at this date" and for the client "The server offered me this agreement at this date". If Altavista says that they won't give out search information and then they do down the road -- well, cryptography says that they're breaking their word.

      I agree that P3P can be quite complex, but from the user perspective, it can actually be very much simpler than cookies. Ideally, you'd choose from a list of profiles (which have plain English descriptions) once and not have to mess with things again.

      Granted, it's likely to be a bit more complicated than that, but cookies currently produce warnings all over -- you don't need to set things on a site by site basis, since you can have sane settings as a default. "No, you can't share my phone number, though you can have it for your own use", for example.

  26. Re:I am looking for a girlfriend1 by m4g02 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    You really are dumb, you wont find a girlfriend on slashdot, dont be a fool, if you really want a girfliend go and play Quake3 or CounterStrike!, even better!, i know a girl named Alice who will be intersted on chating with you, find her on http://www.alicebot.org

    --
    Sigs are for morons... Wait a minute...
  27. Only one question... by Akardam · · Score: 1

    When will Slashdot become P3P complaint?

  28. Re:I am looking for a girlfriend1 by Lunar82 · · Score: 0

    If you are looking for some smart-but-average-looking girls then I suggest you try the library.

  29. The solution is 302 with include by yerricde · · Score: 1

    Sure, it's possible to copy all "templates" to another subfolder and link logged-in users to this one, but why should I do so? ... I'm able to use the same "templates" for logged-in and anonymous users - well, half the work to do

    Then simply have the templates in / and the templates in /members/ include the same PHP code.

    --
    Will I retire or break 10K?
  30. page widening is a form of terrorism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    and should be punished as such. Does anyone here have FBI connections so this guy can be brought to justice?

  31. Re:I am looking for a girlfriend1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I am not dumb!
    Can't you see that my sentences are flawless, and my comments are interesting and intelligently written (so what if they're moded down)?

    Why did you call me dumb? You know, when you exert evilness on people, some of the evilness stays in you and pollutes you.

    PS: Alicebot is not useful at all. The AIML model they invented is simplistic, as all what it can do is give an answer to a single statement. It doesn't remember information from prior answers, so you can't really handle a conversation that way. We're still far away from a real AI psychiatrists.

    Regards,
    Trey Parker

  32. Am I the only one who has a problem with this? by wowbagger · · Score: 3, Interesting
    OK, let me see if I correctly understand P3P.

    1. I give my browser all sorts of information about me, some of which I don't want distributed widely
    2. I then trust the remote web site to correctly identify what they are asking for, and that they will use the data in the way the P3P data says it will be used.


    So, if I trust the web site to correctly implement their privacy policy, why don't I trust them with my data?

    If I don't trust them with my data, why do I trust them to correctly implement a privacy policy?

    In fact, this is one of the few real uses for a Cue-Cat I can think of- have your credit card numbers et. al. printed out on a barcode chart next to your computer. You see the pretty shiny thing you want on the web site, they want your credit card number, you scan the paper. I DEFY any 1337 haxor to get that by ownxoring my machine - I have to scan it.
    1. Re:Am I the only one who has a problem with this? by Account+10 · · Score: 1

      OK, let me see if I correctly understand P3P.

      1. I give my browser all sorts of information about me, some of which I don't want distributed widely


      No, you don't understand it at all. P3P is a way for a site to tell you and your browser, in a standard way, what the site's privacy policy is. No informtion goes from you to the site.

    2. Re:Am I the only one who has a problem with this? by Sloppy · · Score: 1

      In fact, this is one of the few real uses for a Cue-Cat I can think of- have your credit card numbers et. al. printed out on a barcode chart next to your computer. You see the pretty shiny thing you want on the web site, they want your credit card number, you scan the paper.

      Holy Toledo! This is big.

      --
      As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
    3. Re:Am I the only one who has a problem with this? by mewsenews · · Score: 1

      uhhh, i could own your box, then compromise your scanning software to copy the number somewhere which i could access later.

      ..... reminds me of programmers relying on hardware locks because "noone can copy a hardware device easily!!" .. they're right, but someone can certainly compromise the software which checks for the hardware.

    4. Re:Am I the only one who has a problem with this? by cpeterso · · Score: 1, Insightful

      I DEFY any 1337 haxor to get that by ownxoring my machine - I have to scan it.

      Well, the scanner causes software to send a network message. This message could possibly be sniffed, replayed, decrypted, or forged. Or the web site could SAVE your scanned proof of credit card to implelement a feature such as Amazon's One-Click. Oops, their database was hacked.

      Of course, you could send the scanner message over an encrypted channel, but that is no different than just using SSL to type in your credit card number..

    5. Re:Am I the only one who has a problem with this? by Monkeyman334 · · Score: 3, Informative

      You still have to trust the site to be honest in its privacy policy, but with P3P you can't obscure it, make it in legaleese, or have it be misinterpreted. P3P makes it so all *trusted* companies, C|Net, CNN, MSNBC, give you a standardized, automated, and consistent way of getting someone a privacy policy. Just because it is a trusted company does not mean they aren't selling your information. It might say in the privacy policy "Yes, we sell your personal information." But when was the last time you read the privacy policy for a site? P3P makes it automated so anyone and everyone can check the policy for every site they visit. (My site has the XML piece in there already, btw, still don't have the cookie part, probably never will)

    6. Re:Am I the only one who has a problem with this? by wowbagger · · Score: 2

      You missed the point. The point is, that with the method I described, you are no more able to get my card number than you would be were I to type it in from the keyboard.

      What you CANNOT do is get a worm on my machine, and read (the registry|my home directory) to get my credit card number - you would have to comprimise my machine, and keep it comprimised until such time as I made an online purchase. You couldn't do a quick "smash and grab" - crack my machine, get the data, and who cares if I find the worm fifteen minutes later.

      And my point re: P3P stands - the site's XML says "We won't sell your information, we won't trade it, we'll keep it to ourselves. Honest!". Until they decide to change their minds, and sell out to the highest bidder.

      Face it: once you give information to somebody, you no longer control to whom they give that information, therefor if you want to control who has your information, don't give it out.

    7. Re:Am I the only one who has a problem with this? by Valdez · · Score: 1

      At the end of the day your credit card number is still transmitted across the internet. Hello?

  33. GODDAMMIT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Not every fp is offtopic. NOBODY IS USING P3P, SO IT IS DEAD. What part of that did you cum-sucking retards not get through your thick skulls?

  34. I am looking for a girlfriend1 - Library? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well, it's problematic.

    I can't just go and hit on chicks there, since it's not a pub.

    Another way I can think of is just to become a regular in the library, know who are the other regular girls there (and also meet my male rivals that do the same thing), get to know them and after a while ask them for their phone number - a very lengthy procedure.

    It's hard to be a geek. It's harder to be a geek looking for girlfriend.

    - Trey

    1. Re:I am looking for a girlfriend1 - Library? by Lunar82 · · Score: 0

      It might be a lengthy procedure, but while you are at the library you can borrow the erotica and masturbate a lot to relieve the boredom.

  35. Join P3PSI by yerricde · · Score: 3, Informative

    When will Slashdot become P3P complaint?

    You might want to start a P3P Slashdot Initiative. Tell those in charge that you won't subscribe until Slashdot implements P3P, a W3C Proposed Recommendation. You can even call it P3PSI (pronounced PEP-see).

    --
    Will I retire or break 10K?
  36. More configuring.... by russmack · · Score: 1

    So users get more configuration options - this is going to be a mess.

  37. Re:test of page widening by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No, you are using a browser that is both a piece of crap and worthless. Your goddamn fault.

  38. The only cookie solution by jmd! · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The only reliable cookie solution is already here. No changes are required server-side, and you just need a competent browser like Mozilla client side.

    First, disable third-party cookies. Then, weekly, or whenever you're bored, go in to cookie manager, check 'do not reaccept deleted cookies', and delete all the cookies for the sites where you do not need them (login info, valuable preferences, etc). Eventually, you'll end up with a block list that rejects all the bogus cookies of the sites you visit, and you never had to bother with dialogs per cookie, or sites not working because of cookie prefs.

    1. Re:The only cookie solution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      The only reliable cookie solution is already here. No changes are required server-side, and you just need a competent browser like Mozilla client side.

      Mozilla still does not distinguish between session and saved cookies. I could care less who sets what cookies if they're only session based. I rarely run my browser more than a day.

      It's an important distinction, and I'm surprised Mozilla doesn't work as expected.

  39. Re:test of page widening by Lunar82 · · Score: 0

    They claimed it was fixed in the latest revision of slash. But that version isn't being used on slashdot yet. Thanks guys, where do I send my $5 ?

  40. God is an Iron by poena.dare · · Score: 2, Funny

    I find it ironic that W3C's website isn't fully compliant:

    http://validator.w3.org/p3p/20020128/p3p.pl?uri= ht tp%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org

    But, at least they're trying. ;)

    1. Re:God is an Iron by d0st03vsky · · Score: 1
      Um, actually, their site is of course compliant. You have a %20 in your URI. http://validator.w3.org/p3p/20020128/p3p.pl?uri=ht tp%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org

      Should be http://validator.w3.org/p3p/20020128/p3p.pl?uri=ht tp%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org

  41. I remember setting up P3P by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I remember having MSIE denying cookies with some security settings unless P3P was setup on my site...

    So I copied all the P3P files from some other site and it worked fine!

    Of course, it was all completely bogus information... and that's the point. It adds a whole level of complexity and hassle of setting it up, and the user still has no idea if all the info is real or bogus. What a waste of time. Thanks again, Microsoft. You SUCK at setting standards.

  42. Re:test of page widening by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    At least IE's CSS support works right, which the OSS community seems totally unable to do.

  43. Re:I am looking for a girlfriend1 by The+real+Anne+Marie · · Score: 0

    Hello Trey,

    I still read Slashdot quite frequently (and it's still linked on my old site I just don't post much to keep the controversy down and the articles about me to a minimum ;)

    My new site though (which is a bit more acceptable to the masses) is ALL about a gorgeous geek. She is a total brainy babe. Sound too good to believe? I know it's been in the works for ages, but it'll finally be up in APRIL! So check often at my new site for the latest ;) Even good ole Kevin Mitnick will be on there with me. And yes this is the REAL Anne Marie, not the person who wrote claiming to be me (whose name is Anne Marie as well) who stirred up all that commotion over on K5! ;)

    Anne Marie

  44. Stop bombarding me with cookies by alanjstr · · Score: 2

    I'm so sick of being bombarded with third-party persistent cookies. Damn right I want to maintain my privacy. Ok, so if their privacy statement fully notifies me they're going to put a thousand cookies on my machine its alright? Uh, no.

    1. Re:Stop bombarding me with cookies by steve_l · · Score: 1

      if you use mozilla, turn off cookie persistence.

      if you use IE, save the following xml file and then import it as a custom privacy setting. It makes all internet zone site cookies into session cookies; sites you like can be moved into trusted sites, whose security options you can ramp up into a secure level:

      -----------

      it is not real XML; you cant include comments in the file. wierd

    2. Re:Stop bombarding me with cookies by steve_l · · Score: 1

      here it is without tags being dropped as invalid

      <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
      <MSIEPrivacy>
      <MSIEPrivacySet tings formatVersion="6">
      <p3pCookiePolicy zone="internet">
      <firstParty noPolicyDefault="forceSession"
      noRuleDefault="forceSession"
      alwaysAllowSession="yes"/>
      <thirdParty noPolicyDefault="forceSession"
      noRuleDefault="forceSession"
      alwaysAllowSession="yes"/>
      </p3pCookiePolicy>
      </MSIEPrivacySettings>
      </MSIE Privacy>

    3. Re:Stop bombarding me with cookies by Erik+Fish · · Score: 1

      The problem with turning off cookie persistance in Mozilla is that there's no way to exempt certain cookies that you DON'T want deleted.

      This is easilly accomplished in Communicator by write protecting the cookies.txt, but Mozilla stores them differently.

  45. Re:Goodbye. by Oily+Tuna · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    user and/or IP got banned with the corrupted UUEncoded post.

    New password is bollocks

    --
    Mmmmmmm ... sushi.
  46. The real question is by dsanfte · · Score: 1

    Is our privacy important enough to justify further complicating the web?

    That's going to be answered by different people, of course, but that's what it boils down to.

    --
    occultae nullus est respectus musicae - originally a Greek proverb
    1. Re:The real question is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As with most Web things, P3P can be implemented in the clients in such a way that inexperienced have decent, though not very fine-grained control over the information they give out. Advanced users will be able to do all sorts of interesting acceptance/rejection profiles.

      P3P is good stuff. MS may manage to make it suck, and maybe it won't catch on, but it's a good idea.

  47. You don't need my home address by Skapare · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You don't need my home address, unless I am asking you to send something to my home address. You have no valid need or purpose for that information.

    The real problem here is not the complexity of protocols to match privacy policies with privacy preferences, but instead is the fact that so many businesses are just too fucking nosy!. Now I know that those people in suits in the fancy shmancy corporate offices do tend to be idiots most of the time, but this spying on people has got to be stopped. What is wrong with those people that makes them so fucking sick that they need to be spying on everyone so much?

    I find it interesting to note that quite a number of the dot-coms that went into business to spy on people were the ones that failed. But that's only a marginal level of significance. Many others, like doubleclick (which I block at my proxy server), still exist, and need to be taken out by any legal means (I'm doing my part by cutting out their level of hits, even when that means slashdot won't get the ad revenues).

    --
    now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
    1. Re:You don't need my home address by cheezehead · · Score: 1

      What is wrong with those people that makes them so fucking sick that they need to be spying on everyone so much?

      I don't think it's some form of voyeurism. They get taught in business school that this kind of information has monetary value. You know, being able to target ads at people more specifically. I have always wondered about the value of this kind of information, but that's not the point. They sell this info to other people who attended the same business school, and who also think it has value. So, it actually has value (the value of anything is what a fool is willing to pay for it).

      Upside of all of it is that you can more or less control what information you give out. You choose what you type in. I get about 3 or 4 free magazines every month. Part of the deal is that I fill out some lengthy questionaire every 3 months. Stuff about what my company is doing, and whether I recommend or authorize purchases, and to which amount. Obviously, these magazines use this info to convince their advertisers that they are targeting the right people. Most of the time I just guess the answers...

      Anyway, the true danger is in 'spyware'. If I did not agree to some software agent collecting info about my clickin' habits, it should be fsckin' illegal. I have disabled several software spies already.

      --

      MSN 8: Now Microsoft even has bugs in their ad campaigns.

    2. Re:You don't need my home address by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We "spy" because we make money out of it, not by reselling your info but by using it to personalise site - we are an etailer. IF you stop it, we would lose money, and lots of it, and probably go out of business, then you can go and buy stuff of your local monopolistic shop who rips you off.

    3. Re:You don't need my home address by radja · · Score: 2

      > We "spy" because we make money out of it, not by reselling your info but by using it to personalise site - we are an etailer. IF you stop it, we would lose money, and lots of it, and probably go out of business, then you can go and buy stuff of your local monopolistic shop who rips you off.

      Translation: We want to bombard you with specific ads rather than generic ones. If you don't give us your address, we feel that you are a freeloading, pirating hacker. You make us get less money, so you must be at least borderline criminal. We have the right to rip you off, force you to view non-content, and generally be a pain in the ass. You, sir, are a threat to capitalists everywhere, which is the only true economic system.

      //rdj

      --

      No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness.
      --Sheikh Abd-Al-Kadir, 1587
  48. Read the links by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    I strongly recommend that everyone read the material linked to in the original article, especially the EPIC commentary.

    After reading it, I have to admit I have no clue as to why any user would want to use P3P in the first place. OK, I decide I only want to give out my address to have something shipped to me. So all P3P does is tell me when a site is about to ask me for that information--it does not automagically hand that information over to the site. If I don't want the information given out, I won't give it out. I don't need a preconfigured software nanny to remind me that I decided not to provide certain pieces of information.

    Am I missing something here? This really seems like a lot of complexity and overhead for no benefit to anyone.

  49. I've implemented this, and use it day-to-day. by SuperBug · · Score: 4, Informative

    To actually implement P3P, you only need mod_headers when using apache. There is no magic here, it's only a damn header + two XML files, at it's most basic.
    At it's most basic P3P just a header being looked at by a http user agent which has a P3P agent built in. I believe to date it's only I.E. 6.0. Though Mozilla, Opera, Galeon, and Konquerer are sure to follow.
    Many aspects of P3P are positive, but there are parts of the specification which have yet to be properly determined and implemented, in a real-world environment.
    The main parts affected would be any "Third-party" though any "First-party" running a site and issuing cookies of any unacceptable fashion, mainly things which are PII related and cannot be opted out of, will be flagged.
    . In short, be sure you have an opt-out mechanism for your shoppers if you're an e-commerce site.

    Also, any "Third-party" acting as an "Agent" on behalf of any "First-party" which is issuing cookies or collecting data, regardless if PII is involved. The spec for being a "Third-party Agent" has yet to actually be implemented by anyone, though I know some people who will try this soon. Up to this point, the view of "Third-party Agent" is quite desireable to anyone on the 'net who operates in such a manner. It nearly absolves them of "having" to deal with any consumer related issues regarding their data collection because you can point people back to the "First-party's" P3P policy, rather than having to maintain your own.

    The obvious problem here though, is scalability and maintainability. It's tantamount to remote key-managment. You must then manage your "First-party" client's P3P Policies and keep in contact/communication with them to ensure that any changes are propagated to you, should it change, yet you continue to serve an *out of date* P3P Compact Policy in the web server's headers for that client, you very well could be blamed for screwing the data they hired you to collect for them in a very bad way.
    Aside from that, P3P is a very positive thing for consumers and business persons in such a way that it opens a channel of communication which did not exist so much in the foreground, as P3P enables, before. Hope this is useful to anyone trying to understand some of what P3P really is.

    --
    --SuperBug
  50. Re:I am looking for a girlfriend1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Aren't you full of yourself?!

  51. Re:I am looking for a girlfriend1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I NEED A BITCH TO DO THE DISHES AND LAUNDRY, NOT USE MY COMP WHEN I WANT TO. YOU AREN'T EVEN *THAT* GOOD LOOKING.

    Lameness filter: off.
    Proof: "fsdfnjkasdfansdjfnasjdfnjiasndfjnasjifdnjaisdnfji ansdfijnasjdnfjiansdjfasdjnfjiansjfnasjdfnjsadnfja sndfjnsadjfnasjdnfjiandsfjansdjfnasjdfnajsndfjasnd fjnasdjfinsajfdnjsidanfjiasndfnjasnfjasdnfjiasnfji sndfjinasdjfjiasndfjiasjindjasndjfnjaidsnfjinasdjf idjansfjisdnjfinajsidnfjinasdjfnjiasndfjinasdjfnji asdnfjinjasdfnjdsafnjidsanf".

  52. Re:I am looking for a girlfriend1 by The+true+Anne+Marie · · Score: 1

    Great another impersonating bitch is showing herself. Stop copying me you dumb whore!

  53. Re:test of page widening by Inthewire · · Score: 1

    At least IE's CSS support works right, which the OSS community seems totally unable to do.

    A-fucking-men.

    I have a website / community that I built.
    It has about 1200 users, sees some decent traffic, is a nice enough place.
    There are a bunch of custom options, and I'm rewriting the site to use dynamic stylesheets.
    I tend to surf with Opera.
    I love it - esp. the no-popup option.
    But it can't handle custom classes in stylesheets.
    And that pisses me off.

    --


    Writers imply. Readers infer.
  54. Re:*BSD is dying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Dude, like I was on SLashdot, and shit, and there was this guy who kept posting the same lame shit over and over, he claimed to be a troll and shit, but like, he was just a dipshit apparently, and shit, because like, he kept posting the same shit over and over and shit. At least be creative and shit if you like want to be a troll and shit.

  55. Re:test of page widening by GigsVT · · Score: 1

    Opera for Linux is generally a lot better than Opera for windows, the Opera people have their priorities straight.

    What version are you using?

    --
    I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
  56. P3P is about privacy, commercialism isn't relavent by mtippett · · Score: 1

    Having worked recently on adding P3P support to a proxy application, I feel I have a solid understanding about P3P. Some of the higher moderated sites have complained about the little guys getting hurt, and the big commercial sites not getting hurt.

    P3P is about ensuring that users can match their preferences to the policies that a web site has. If the web site shares the data without a users explicit permission then a user can indicate with their user-agent that their identifying information shouldn't be allowed. The current protocol is fairly basic, not allowing for negotiation, and so it is trivial to implement.

    The next point to make is about lying about the privacy policies. A statement about privacy with out a company following up with a way to ensure the policy is adhered to makes the policy a throw away statement. It is trivial to say to a browser that a site does nothing with the data, and still will. This is where third party verification with remedies becomes appropriate.

    As you can see, there is no distinction between a big site or a little site. As long as the policies conflict with what the users want, the sites will be blocked.

  57. Re:I am looking for a girlfriend1 by The+real+Anne+Marie · · Score: 0

    Full of myself? Who said the new site was going to be about me? I am sorry you don't have any sense of wit to "get" my site. Besides, there is more than one (ok maybe two) hot gorgeous perfect looking geeks who are totally in the know on this planet who know every supergeek there is. Right?

  58. Use the LINK tag by Kelson · · Score: 1
    "P3P has absolutely no Application-Server/Scripting support.... The problem is, that the GET Request is absolutely the same, it doesn't matter if the user is logged-in or anonymous."

    WRONG! You can do something like:

    <link rel="P3Pv1" href="...">

    See http://www.w3.org/TR/P3P/ section 2.2.3, The HTML link Tag.

  59. SWIFTBOARD by Andorion · · Score: 1

    Couple of my friends work at this place... maybe this would be a better solution.

    Check it out: SWIFTBOARD

    -Berj

  60. Why should privately run sites be unprofessional? by TheMCP · · Score: 2

    Look, in 1996 a friend of mine and I sat down and produced a multi-thousand-page hand-coded web site that won basically every web award there was at the time.

    We are both self-taught at both web programming and visual design.

    At present we're doing a different site. It gets half a million hits a day. We're doing a redesign now, intended to increase traffic by making the site more attractive. It hasn't had a facelift in 6 or 7 years. The site sells nothing and has no paid ads.

    There's no reason why a "personal" web site can't be done just as professionally and using just as good technology as any commercial site out there. If a site author can't be bothered to learn how to code a site correctly or design it well, I have no problem with avoiding the site.

    Now that it looks like P3P may actually catch on, I'll learn how it works and implement it.

  61. Making a p3p profile isn't that hard ... by Johnny00 · · Score: 0, Informative

    ... if you've already got a privacy policy for your site.

    P3Pizing (or 'pethripizing') a complex site can evolve into a Herculean task...!


    How is this so difficult?

    I converted my companies privacy policy (quite detailed) to the needed p3p files using the tool IBM has available in under 2 hours with no prior experience.

    The concept isn't that hard to understand, am I missing something that would make this so hard or time consuming to do?

    --
    I live life on the edge ... of my desk.
    1. Re:Making a p3p profile isn't that hard ... by d0st03vsky · · Score: 1

      Agreed. IBM, MS and others have tools which make the policy implementation pretty straightforward. The question is, if a site decides to collect or retain private information at any point, should we not hold them to the highest public standard? Is this not slashdot?

  62. Re:P3P is about privacy, commercialism isn't relav by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    I'm only using AC because my username might enable some people to tie this post to the company I'm describing.
    A statement about privacy with out a company following up with a way to ensure the policy is adhered to makes the policy a throw away statement. It is trivial to say to a browser that a site does nothing with the data, and still will. This is where third party verification with remedies becomes appropriate.
    I worked for a dot com that dealt with extremely private data. People trusted the company with that data because the privacy policy specifically stated that no one would ever have access to their data, only information that was not personally identifiable.

    One day I walked in on an engineer who had a user's supposedly encrypted data on his screen. It turns out the engineers have access to all the data "for quality control purposes." He showed me several other people's accounts like it was no big deal. I asked marketing if they were aware that the privacy policy was wrong. A director told me the privacy policy wasn't designed to be followed, it was designed to disarm users so they'd trust us.

    They had nearly 2 million unique users when I left. Is your credit card number on an engineer's screen? Was that your bank statement I saw? Did that engineer remember to secure his terminal before going to the bathroom? Were you among the users who thought the "approved by TrustE" logo on our pages meant TrustE verified and enforced our policies?

  63. Ebay is already making the P3P usability zero by aepervius · · Score: 2, Insightful

    http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/internet/03/16/privac y.labels.ap/index.html IF you read at the middle of the article Ebay is putting into its privacy policy that : quote "Online auctioneer eBay, which has yet to commit, is revising its privacy policy to say its written form takes precedent even if P3P or other statements say otherwise. " Whatever P3P says, privacy policy has still the last word. So in summary : p3p is *USELESS*.

    --
    C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
    visit randi.org
  64. the only reason.... by pHaze · · Score: 1

    ..we use a P3P header on our site is so that IE6 will accept our 'third party' cookie if our site is opened in frames by clicking on a link to it while reading a message in hotmail (for example).

    ~mark
    --
    www.workzoo.com

  65. Sometimes the simplest solutions are neatest... by BrokenHalo · · Score: 1

    Since I can live without persistent cookies, I have a simple trick I've been using for a few years, and that is simply to link my Mozilla/Netscape/Whatever cookies file to /dev/null.

    (or in the bad ol' days when I ran a Windows box, I used to emulate this by just creating an empty directory of the same name - this didn't work, of course, with IE, as the latter [as far as I remember] had a different way of filing cookies).

    OK, you still have to close the browser to completely clear the cookies, but I found an immediate drop in the amount of spam I was getting.

  66. Re:test of page widening by PaperTie · · Score: 1
    the Opera people have their priorities straight
    Uhh... If you're going to bother writing software for any OS, why should it be crappier than the version for another OS?
  67. Re:fp fp fp! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No no! No fp for youu. Prison sex?

  68. OECD Privacy Policy Generator by rtos · · Score: 3, Informative
    What is the OECD Privacy Policy Generator? It's a freely available tool to help you put together a working privacy policy for your website. Here is the site description:
    "It provides guidance on conducting an internal review of existing personal data practices and on developing a privacy policy statement. It gives links to private sector organisations with expertise in developing a privacy policy. It offers links to governmental agencies, non-governmental organisations and private bodies that give information on applicable regulations.

    The Generator makes use of a questionnaire to learn about your personal data practices. A Help Section provides explanatory notes and practical guidance. Warning flags appear where appropriate. Your answers are then fed into a pre-formatted draft policy statement. You must assess this statement: is it an accurate reflection of your personal data practices and policy?"

    I'm not sure if it fits with the P3P standard, but I thought some site admins might find it to be useful.

    PS. OECD = Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development. According to their site they are "an international organisation helping governments tackle the economic, social and governance challenges of a globalised economy."

    --
    -- null
  69. 90% use IE6?? by Mike+Greaves · · Score: 2

    > Microsoft had no problem jumping on it and getting it out and in use
    > (in 90% of the browsers out there, no less).

    Really? IE6 supports it; are 90% of internet users using IE6? I think not.

    Something like (very roughly), 65% use IE (all versions), 20% use AOL (w. embedded IE, various versions), 10% use Netscape/Mozilla (all versions), 5% others.

    So 85% use an IE-based browser. What fraction of those are *IE6*-based? Half? My guess would be that less than 30% of current users (total, all browsers) run IE6.

    People should remember that the majority of users *don't upgrade* their web browser regularly. Lots of IE's market share is still version 4; and I would guess that 6 is still not as popular as 5.x.

    --
    -- Mike Greaves
  70. Bug in IE? by jonasj · · Score: 1

    I've run into the very same problem just yesterday, actually. My solution was the same as yours (to add a P3P header), but somehow I feel that IE's behavior in this case is rather buggy.

    I understand why it can be considered a privacy issue when DoubleClick sets a cookie which is sent back to them every time you visit a site which use DoubleClick for banner ads, but instead of completely blocking "third party" cookies which doesn't have P3P headers, wouldn't it be more correct to accept them but rather restrict them to the same site?

    For example, if I visit site A, which uses DoubleClick, and DoubleClick sets a cookie, and I then visit site B, which also uses DoubleClick, I do not want the cookie which DoubleClick set when I was viewing site A to be sent to DoubleClick again. However, I do not see a problem with DoubleClick being able to set the cookie when I visit site A if the cookie is only sent to DoubleClick when I view site A.

    What I'm trying to say is this: If your site didn't send the P3P header, shouldn't IE6 still accept your cookie when your site is opened in frames, but just restrict it so it will only be sent to your server when your site is being viewed through that frameset, in other words NOT send it if I go directly to your site or view it inside a frameset at some other site? Is this a bug in IE?

    --
    You know, Microsoft's street address also says a lot about their mentality.
  71. Re:test of page widening by Inthewire · · Score: 1

    6.01 on Win2K. I was running it on Linux, but I hate dual-booting, and Linux isn't what I use to get things done. Maybe someday, but I've not got the time to learn a whole new set of tools right now.

    --


    Writers imply. Readers infer.
  72. P3p by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But then man all you .mp3 l33t hacker dudez will be riping my sitty little grunge bands songs man, down with the net I saw.

  73. Re:I am looking for a girlfriend1 by NaveWeiss · · Score: 1

    Hey, it's "Trey Parker" again. I decided to give up on being an AC.

    Assuming it's the real Anne Marie, I'm very glad to see you're still around. I have a lot of empathy towards you - and towards other expressive geek girls, like Nitrozac (they are so rare..)

    I emailed you some time ago, but I didn't receive a response.. did you get it? Is there any way I can confirm that user #255255 is indeed you?

    And if so, will you create the geek dating site you promised? :)

    If you want to answer me, it might be better if you do it in my journals, so I won't be moded down horribly.

    - Nave` H. Weiss

    --
    Slashdot community, please notice: I am looking for a girlfriend.
    Nave H. Weiss
  74. 3rd party P3P is a stumbling block for many by Internet+Ninja · · Score: 1

    Spend any length of time on the P3P mailing list and you'll notice that most questions revolve around using 3rd party cookies. This is where iE6 spends most of it's time rejecting cookies.
    By default IE6 is set to reject cookies from 3rd party sites which includes many ad serving companies. Deciding how to set up your P3P to fit with this can be problematic.

    First off, you must decide who does what and how. Is the ad serving company acting as an agent for you? If so, then the should be able to be covered by your own P3P policy. IIRC the relates to the ad company only if they are there to serve banners and that's it.
    Not ad company does that. They gather every little morsel they can. Which means they have to serve their own P3P policy as well as you serving your own.

    Now doubleclick have got it right. They server a P3P header for their ads s everyone is happy. Where I used to work, the ad serving company wanted to do all sorts of whacky crap which basically involved us having to jump through hoops for them. This was a big outfit and they obviously didn't get it.

    IMHO many sites don't need P3P just yet because the functionality offered in the draft just isn't in the user agents yet. When they are then I think people will start to use it but it does depend on the honor system somewhat. Some companies do offer 'auditing' though to get round this.

    Work with your ad serving company if their cookies etc are being blocked. Often it's up to them to do the P3P stuff but make sure you do your research as well so they don't snow you.

    It's not hard to create one. A good read of the implmentation guide will go a long way, plus the IBM P3P editor is great. You can grab it from here

  75. Time to upgrade again ? by billcopc · · Score: 1

    But I was just getting the hang of P2P, now I need to get a new computer for P3P ?

    --
    -Billco, Fnarg.com
  76. What's the big deal? by g0rath · · Score: 1

    This is a joke. If you want P3P you add this to your apache.conf

    <Location />
    Header append P3P "policyref=\"/w3c/p3p.xml\"
    Header append P3P "CP=\"IDC DSP COR CURa ADMa DEVa CUSa PSAa IVAa CONo OUR IND UNI STA\""
    </Location />

    Then create a directory w3c off of your document root, create a file named p3p.xml

    and then write something like this

    <?xml version="1.0" ?>
    <META xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/12/P3Pv1">
    <POLICY-REFERENCES>
    <POLICY-REF about="http://Your URL/policy.xml">
    <INCLUDE>/*</INCLUDE>
    </POLICY-REF>
    </POLICY-REFERENCES>
    </META>

    So how difficult is that? Oh what's that? you don't use apache? That's your fault.

  77. You mispelled it!!!!! by NaveWeiss · · Score: 1

    The correct way to write it is "Pancakes".
    I'm so cool.. I can correct spelling mistakes! Unfortunately, it's not a good way to meet chicks. Oh well..

    And where's Anne Marie? I wanted her to answer me. :(((

    --
    Slashdot community, please notice: I am looking for a girlfriend.
    Nave H. Weiss
  78. Heheheh! They moded you down!! by NaveWeiss · · Score: 1

    You suck, and I rule! I didn't lose karma!

    --
    Slashdot community, please notice: I am looking for a girlfriend.
    Nave H. Weiss