JUNKBUSTERS ^®

Contact: Jeannette Boccini
The Krantz Group, Inc.
(212) 891-7235
jboccini@krantzgroup.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New York, NY -- April 9, 1998 -- Junkbusters President Jason Catlett today issued the following comment on Microsoft's reported acquisition of Firefly Network Inc.'s profiling business:

If Microsoft keeps buying Internet companies and fuses their customer databases together, Gates will be called Big Brother Bill. To allay privacy suspicions, Microsoft should declare a policy of openness about the data it keeps and what it buys from marketers such as Metromail.

Firefly demonstrated how millions find mass customization of sites worthwhile, and that this can even be done while retaining the anonymity that so many crave. But the millions who have given their names, email addresses and other personal details to Firefly may be disturbed to find Microsoft owning it. The same thing happened when Microsoft acquired the web-based email provider, Hotmail; the Internet Provider, Web TV; and a long list of startups. Profiling and personalization technology can invade privacy if it produces information about a person that can't be seen and deleted if desired.

Finding out everything Microsoft knows about you ought to be as easy as getting a copy of your credit card report. The Microsoft empire needs glasnost, and Gates ought to be its Gorbachev. He shouldn't wait for Congress to legislate or consumers will revolt. If Microsoft and other database barons don't quickly commit to strong privacy policies, people's willingness to give personal information to web sites can only be expected to erode even further.

More background and detail is available at: http://www.junkbusters.com/news/#MSFT

Junkbusters's site (http://www.junkbusters.com) is a leading consumer resource on the control of telemarketing calls, unwanted mail, email, and commercial invasions of privacy. The company's flagship service, Junkbusters Declare (SM), gives consumers a free and easy way to say what they want and don't want from direct marketers, and to tell companies that sell mailing lists not to ``rent'' their names. Its widely-used free privacy-enhancing software, the Internet Junkbuster Proxy (TM), blocks unwanted cookies and banner ads.