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This article ought to make you really, really angry.

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090904/ap_on_hi_te/us_tec_internet_monitorin
g_kids

"Parents who install a leading brand of software to monitor their kids'
online activities may be unwittingly allowing the company to read their
children's chat messages ‹ and sell the marketing data gathered.

Software sold under the Sentry and FamilySafe brands can read private chats
conducted through Yahoo, MSN, AOL and other services, and send back data on
what kids are saying about such things as movies, music or video games. The
information is then offered to businesses seeking ways to tailor their
marketing messages to kids."


This is not the first time I have seen this. In the late 90's, Zapme was
providing free computers to schools in exchange for the ability to market
profile students. There is a company called Eguardian that is working
through schools to provide digital identification of young people - and then
are also then engaging in market profiling. When the states attorneys
general were pressuring the social networking sites to establish age and
identify verification, all of the companies that were telling them this
could be done were really excited about the prospect of being better able to
develop market research profiles tied to verifiable children and teens.

The FTC is focusing on the issues of behavioral targeting. My position is
very clear. There should be an absolute prohibition against market profiling
of children and teens. Period.

Nancy

-- 
Nancy Willard, M.S., J.D.
Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use
http://csriu.org
http://cyberbully.org
http://cyber-safe-kids.com
http://csriu.wordpress.com
nwillard@csriu.org

Cyberbullying and Cyberthreats: Responding to the Challenge of Online Social
Aggression, Threats, and Distress (Research Press)

Cyber-Safe Kids, Cyber-Savvy Teens: Helping Young People Learn to Use the
Internet Safely and Responsibly (Jossey-Bass)

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