ISP Information:
First introduced in the NetWare 4.0 network operating system, this is a system designed to make management of large networks easier for administrators. NDS allows users, groups, files, directories, and other local and remote resources to be displayed in a hierarchical tree structure. ISP Glossary:
NDS - Web Firms Choose Profit Over PrivacyBy Jonathan KrimWashington Post Staff WriterTuesday, July 1, 2003; Page A01To parents interested in buying the popular Hooked on Phonicslearn-to-read programs, the company made a firm promise on its Website: It would never sell or rent their personal information to othermarketers.But that pledge was empty. In the pages of a marketing tradepublication, Gateway Learning Corp., the product's California-basedparent company, was advertising to rent the list of Hooked on Phonicsbuyers to other marketers.At a price of $95 per 1,000 names, companies could arrange to haveunsolicited advertising sent to 105,936 people who bought Hooked onPhonics in the past year. Included in the information made availableto other marketers: ages of the buyers' children.After inquiries from The Washington Post, the company changed itsprivacy policy and is no longer promising to keep such data from beingoffered to others. A company spokeswoman said the firm was simply slowto update its policy. Previous customers would be notified of thechange and offered the chance to remove themselves from the list, shesaid.Hooked on Phonics is one example of retailers, marketers and an arrayof service providers expanding their collection and use of consumers'e-mail addresses and other personal information, despite broadassurances to protect individual privacy and honor consumers' choicesabout how much marketing they want to receive.Many firms use tactics designed to hide their intent to gather andprofit from the data they collect, information that grows in value asmore and more people use the Internet for information and shopping."Companies continually troll for, and exploit, personally identifiableinformation," said Joseph Turow, a media professor at the Universityof Pennsylvania who specializes in mass marketing. "Some Web sitesunabashedly collect all the information they can about visitors andmarket as aggressively as they can to advertisers and othermarketers."But these techniques have drawn scant attention as the flood ofunwanted commercial e-mail has reached tidal-wave proportions.Instead, retailers, advertisers and Internet service providers such asMicrosoft Corp., America Online and Yahoo Inc. have so farsuccessfully lobbied government regulators to put the spotlight ondeceptive practices of the most unsavory purveyors of scams andpornography.Mallory Duncan, senior vice president and general counsel of theNational Retail Federation, argues that mainstream corporations canpolice their own marketing practices. "The concern with spam is notwith the Gap coupon you receive," said Duncan, who represents thelargest lobbying and trade group for store owners. "It's the hugeamount of porn and other things that were unsolicited."With the onslaught of spam, almost all companies promise not to sellconsumer data. But many don't mention that such information is rented.This means that the list owner won't release the data to an outsidemarketer, but it will send messages to the list on the outsider'sbehalf. Targeted lists available for rent number in the thousands,including those from magazines, professional organizations and evenpolitical interest groups such as Republicans for Jesus.Recently, for example, the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundationadvertised that its list of donors, including postal addresses, wasfor rent.A charity spokeswoman said that the rental list includes data onlyfrom donors who gave through direct-mail appeals, not online. But sheacknowledged that those people were provided no privacy information;the charity's Web site says it will never sell or share e-mailaddresses of donors. Direct-mail donors will now be given a chance toremove their names from the donor list, the spokeswoman said, addingthat the organization's lists are offered only to "like-minded"groups.Sometimes, consumers may not be aware they are handing overinformation to vendors working behind the scenes at certain Web sites.Take CartManager, a Provo, Utah, company that is one of many providers
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