• What's ticked?
• Accolades
• Contact us

c o l u m n s

• Cheap Charlie
• ChrisCrossings
• Err Travel
• Leocha
• Travel Notes
• Archives

Privacy Pirates
Kirby's Korner · August 18, 2000

Political buffs - or lovers of a good straight line - may remember that during the Great Unpleasantness a couple years ago President Clinton had a hard time remembering what the meaning of the word "is" is.

Now, it seems, online companies are having equal difficulty with the word "never."

As in: "Personal information voluntarily submitted by visitors to our site, such as name, address, billing information, and shopping preferences, is never shared with a third party."

That was the assurance the now-defunct Web-based toy store toysmart.com gave folks who visited its Web site and purchased the educational toys it sold. It backed that assurance with a license from TRUSTe, which runs a service that verifies online promises about privacy, as does the Better Business Bureau's BBBOnline.

In May, toysmart.com went out of business. It filed for bankruptcy in June, indicating that its lists of customers and databases were assets that could be sold to pay off debts.

In other words, for some customers toysmart's definition of "never" was "oh, about a month."

The Federal Trade Commission sued, trying to halt the release of the customer data in violation of the privacy pledge and charging toysmart with misrepresentation. TRUSTe has entered the bankruptcy proceeding to try to get toysmart to live up to its promise.

Toysmart never sold travel. But its repudiation of a privacy guarantee raises a question or two for Web sites that do - and for their customers. Do these sites have privacy promises? And will they keep them?

Certainly the questions are more important for travel Web sites than for toy merchants. Travel retailers know when you're not home, where you go, and how much you spend on discretionary items. They obviously have your address and credit card number, they may know of dietary restrictions and your smoking habits, and many will have your frequent flier information.

Some specifically track the paths you take as you click around their Web sites, filing in more details about you.

In short, they can make shrewd guesses about you as a consumer. How would you like those tidbits let loose to the highest bidder?

The good news is that the major online travel players post privacy policies, and most subscribe to either TRUSTe or BBBOnline. Most see a commitment to keep information private as essential to their success.

Buyers can help themselves by looking for privacy policies on Web sites they frequent and reading them carefully, particularly before they submit sensitive information. Experts suggest Web site visitors look for four areas in the privacy policies:

• Notice: what information is collected, and how will it be used?

• Choice: do visitors have options with respect to the site contacting them or revealing information to third parties?

• Access: can visitors see the information that has been collected and correct inaccuracies?

• Security: how is the information protected, both as it is collected and later?

Once times get rough, will travel Web sites live up to the promises they make about the privacy of consumer information? For now, we can only hope so.

Doing so would be smart, not just toysmart.

David Kirby is the editor of Interactive Travel Report. His column appears on Friday. You can reach him at david@ticked.com.