Web sellers are not (yet) required by law to respect the privacy of people who shop and/or order from their sites. This means the seller may collect data on which site pages you visit, which products you buy, when you buy them, and where you ship them. Then, the seller may share the information with other companies or sell it to them. As a result, you might get more direct-mail advertising, spam, or calls from telemarketers.

Surveys have shown that this is a major concern consumers have about electronic shopping. In response, government regulators have encouraged sellers to post privacy policies on their web sites.

If a site does not have a privacy policy posted, you may not want to do business with that site. If it does have a privacy policy, there will probably be a link to it from the seller’s home page, or it could be included with the seller's Legal Terms.

A seller’s privacy policy should indicate:

• What information the seller is gathering from you

• How the seller will use this information; and

• Whether and how you can "opt out" of these practices

A Monitored Site

Is the web site monitored by an independent organization?

Although it may seem reassuring to find on a seller’s web site a logo, icon, or seal of an independent organization that monitors privacy policies and practices, you should also check the seller’s privacy policy for yourself. These organizations might not require the seller to adopt specific privacy practices. Instead, they might only require the seller to comply with whatever practices the seller has chosen to make part of its privacy policy. Nor are the independent organizations necessarily financially liable if the seller breaches the terms of its privacy policy (although they might help you to arrange a settlement with the seller).

Avoiding "cookies"

How can you avoid "cookies"?

Some web sites are programmed to insert a small file onto the hard drive of your computer, so that the owner of the site can monitor where you go and what you do on the site. The site-owner might also be able to obtain your e-mail address from your visit.

Here’s how to avoid this:

• Configure Netscape Navigator™ or Microsoft Internet Explorer¨ to warn you when a site is attempting to deposit a cookie. Then you’ll receive the option of whether or not to accept it.

  To do this in Netscape Navigator™, choose Edit, Preferences, then Advanced, and select a privacy option from the "cookies" menu.

  To do this in Microsoft Internet Explorer¨ 4.0, go to the View menu and choose Internet Options, then Advanced, and select a privacy option from the cookies item on the pull-down menu.

• Nevertheless, whichever web browser you use, you can buy a software program for your browser that will warn you of, and help you to refuse, attempts by web sites to deposit cookies.

A number of commercial web sites will send you a confirmation e-mail message immediately after they receive your e-mail order. You may not want to order from those web sites if you are concerned that your employer or someone sharing your computer might see the message and the items ordered. If you’re not sure of a site’s confirmation policy, you could contact the site about it or order a non-controversial item first to see how the site's procedure works.

If you pay by using a credit card, consider asking whether or not your credit card number will be kept on file by the seller for automatic use in future orders from you. You might prefer not to have the credit card number kept on file, but instead to provide the card number again each time. Click on payment for more information on credit cards.