Controversial privacy seal program TrustE is in hot water again, with critics raising questions over its handling of RealNetworks Inc’s RealJukebox. Richard Smith, founder of Phar Lap Software turned independent internet security consultant, broke the news last week that RealJukebox collects playlists and global unique identifiers (GUIDs) for transmission to the company’s internet servers. Privacy activists were outraged and RealNetworks issued a swift patch and an abject apology. But TrustE, ostensibly the consumer’s privacy watchdog for the web, has given the company what amounts to little more than a slap on the wrist. After an initial inquiry, TrustE found that because the transmission of use data through RealNetworks’ RealJukebox program did not involve collection of data on the RealNetworks web site, the privacy incident was outside the scope of TrustE’s current privacy seal program, said chairman Lori Fena.
If this sounds strangely familiar, it’s because TrustE used exactly the same technicality back in March 1999, to let Microsoft off the hook for developing the GUID in the first place. The incident severely damaged TrustE’s credibility, not least because Microsoft is a Premier Corporate Sponsor of TrustE, to the tune of some $100,000 per year. TrustE is apologetic. Fena continues: Because consumer trust is more important than legal technicalities for both TrustE and RealNetworks, we have worked together to find a series of appropriate solutions. Apparently TrustE made five demands, including a third party audit, modified privacy statement, opt-in for GUIDs, appointment of a privacy officer and a consumer education program. Yet RealNetworks had already undertaken to do everything but the appointment of a privacy officer, in the statement announcing the apology and patch!
It seems ironic that TrustE was created by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) in a bid to ward off internet regulation. TrustE was supposed to be proof of concept for the notion that industry self-regulation can protect consumer interests. In the wake of a devastating Forrestor Research report in September 1999 that chronicled the increasing incidence of web privacy violation, the EFF itself now acknowledges that self- regulation and TrustE have failed, and calls for a legislated solution. This latest uproar lends new credence to that view. RealNetworks is a Contributing Corporate Sponsor to TrustE. To many observers, TrustE’s ineffectual response to the RealJukebox scandal is proof that the watchdog never bites the hand that feeds it – not least because it has no teeth.
