JUNKBUSTERS ^®

Contact: Jeannette Boccini
The Krantz Group, Inc.
(212) 891-7234
jboccini@krantzgroup.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Washington, DC -- November 19, 1998 -- Reacting to Microsoft Corporation's call at COMDEX Monday for other companies to adopt policies formulated by the Online Privacy Alliance (OPA), privacy advocates accused Microsoft of hypocrisy and denounced the OPA's policies as insufficient to protect the privacy of Americans. ``Microsoft should put its own house in order on privacy rather than waving about a discredited blueprint as a model for others,'' said Jason Catlett, President of Junkbusters Corp. ``This attempt to portray itself as a leader in consumer privacy is as preposterous as the notion that it has treated its competitors with high standards of business ethics.''

``The Privacy Alliance's guidelines are more public relations than privacy protection,'' said David Banisar, Policy Director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. ``Under the guidelines, companies have nearly unlimited ability to disclose personal information to other companies without real consent, while not even allowing consumers access their own information. To compound the problem, there is no impartial mechanism to enforce what little protections the guidelines promise.''

Catlett pointed to several recent examples of Microsoft's disregard for consumer privacy. Its subsidiary WebTV revealed that it receives reports via the Internet of the television viewing habits of families who use its appliance. Hotmail, another subsidiary which provides free web-based email, has been tampering with members' mail by inserting technology that allows the company to see whenever members click on a Web page mentioned in their personal mail. Microsoft recently bought banner ad company LinkExchange, acquiring millions of ``cookies'' on surfers' PCs, and with them surveillance information on the web pages people view. Microsoft sometimes denies consumers access to its content if they refuse to submit to the tracking mechanism of cookies.

``Microsoft now controls so much personal information about consumers that its empire poses a major threat to privacy,'' Catlett continued. ``It must break from its history of invasive practices and make a real commitment to consumers.''

The privacy advocates called on Microsoft to pledge:

• never to withhold content to people who refuse cookies
• never to use their software or appliances to collect information about consumers without their knowledge and affirmative consent
• to abide by the internationally accepted principles of fair information practices defined by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in 1980.

• provide people with access to the information that a company keeps about them
• provide a meaningful enforcement mechanism such as $100 liquidated damages against companies that violate a consumer's privacy.

More background and detail on Microsoft's record on privacy is available at: http://www.junkbusters.com/news/#MSFT