Preserving Privacy
The World Wide Web is increasingly used for commerce and for access to personal information stored in computerized databases. Clearly, the Internet and the Web ease access to existing data sources, some of which contain personal information, such as financial records, medical records, criminal records. More subtly, and perhaps more significantly, by moving many human activities (shopping, entertainment, communication, and so forth) onto the computer and computer networks, the Web makes it possible to track an individual's activities more than ever before. Indeed, many Web sites collect information about you, such as the pages you visit, the searches you request, the items you browse or purchase, or the ads you click, without your consent, and in many cases, without your knowledge.