Geocities caves in on privacy

Internet community Geocities is to comply with US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requests by publishing full details of its privacy policy on its Internet site. The FTC charged the online organisation with selling confidential information about residents to marketing agencies.

This is the first time the US government agency has taken a stand on Internet privacy. Its Bureau of Consumer Protection heard about the Geocities case from users who started receiving special offers from third parties, although they were under the impression their registration details would only be used internally.

Geocities - which hosts a community of Web pages for individual people - denied the allegations. But as part of an out of court settlement, the company published a full statement on how it uses personal information. The company's share price dropped 15 per cent with the news.

The site now obtains parental consent before collecting data from children under the age of 13. It clearly states how consumers can remove personal data from their files, and it clarifies which data is managed by Geocities and which is accessible to third parties. Geocities set up this privacy model in mid-June, following the initial FTC investigation.

In the UK, there is still no official body to protect consumers from online privacy violations. However, a spokeswoman from the Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA), told Silicon News that CEO David Kennedy is addressing the issue.