Internet PrivacyConcern over Internet privacy is increasingly becoming a matter of international controversy. “Citizens are becoming concerned that the most intimate details of their daily lives are being monitored, researched and recorded.” (www.britannica.com) 81% of Internet users are concerned about threats to their privacy while online. The greatest threat to privacy comes from the construction of electronic commerce alone and not from state agents. E-commerce is structured around copying and exchanging intimate personal information and, therefore, poses a threat to privacy on the Internet. The Internet's leading advertising company, DoubleClick, Inc., has collected in-depth information about the browsing routines of millions of users. They achieved this by implementing ?cookies? files on your computer's hard drives. These cookies allow websites and advertising networks to observe people's online activities with great precision. Cookies also include the search vocabulary you enter, articles read, and the amount of time spent viewing a particular article. Convinced that their real identities were not being made public, consumers were happy to accept this in exchange for the ease of browsing the web more efficiently. “In November 1999 DoubleClick purchased Abacus Direct, which contained a database of names, addresses and information on the offline shopping habits of 90 million households compiled from the nation's largest catalog and direct mail retailers.” (www.britannica.com) After purchasing Abacus two months later, DoubleClick began compiling profiles that linked an individual's actual name and address to Abacus's complete records of their online and offline purchases. This has turned purchases, once thought to be anonymous, into personally identifiable documents. The American Management Association conducted a survey of nearly a thousand large companies and found that more than half of large American companies surveyed monitored their employees' Internet relationships. Many of these companies used Orwellian computer software that was initially offered for as little as $99 and had the ability to screen and record every keystroke on the computer with video-like precision. It is also possible for companies to check all incoming and outgoing emails for prohibited words and phrases, such as those involving racism or the name of a bos...... middle of paper .... ..eu =369441>.?Privacy initiatives.? Federal Trade Commission. March 4, 2001 .?Road Rules for the Information Highway.? Privacy in cyberspace. 1999Privacy Rights Organization. March 4, 2001 Gillin, Donna. ?Privacy issues are in focus in 2001.? American MarketingAssociation Spring 2001. Chicago. April 2, 2001 .MacMillan, Robert ?Anonymity on the web brings annoyances.? The Washington Post, February 16, 2001, Washington, DC, April 2, 2001 .?Beyond All Concerns: Understanding Internet Users? Attitudes regarding online privacy.? Technical report AT&TLabs-Research TR 99.4.3. April 14, 1999 AT&T Labs-Research. March 4, 2001 .?Protecting your privacy online.? TRUSTe: for WEB USERS. 1999 Federal Trade Commission. March 4, 2001. Untitled. Epic. 1999 Mark Rotenberg. March 4 2001.