Posted on: Tuesday, June 15, 2004

Online readers losing privacy

By Joann Loviglio
Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA — Imagine if a trip to the corner newsstand required handing over your name, address, age, and income to the cashier before you could pick up the daily newspaper.

That's close to the experience of many online readers, who must complete registration forms with various kinds of personal data before seeing their virtual newspaper.

The requirement has irked some readers and privacy advocates, led to the creation of Web sites to foil the system, and could be failing to provide the solid demographic information that the system was intended to capture.

Despite these concerns, a growing number of newspapers — including The Philadelphia Inquirer in March and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in April — have moved to online registration in the past year.

Industry representatives argue that because their Web readers get the same content as the paper-and-ink edition without paying for it, it's fair to ask them for personal information in exchange for access. They also say that collecting such data is becoming essential as the news business evolves.

"One of the things newspapers are trying to do is get a grasp on who's using their Web site and how much, whether they're people who already subscribe (to the print edition), people who live outside the area," said Scott Bosley of the American Society of Newspaper Editors.

The industry has not tracked the shift in detail, but news organizations and marketing groups say an increasing number of newspapers have begun requiring online registration, particularly in the last 12 months or so.

Some forms require the most basic information, like gender and year of birth. Others ask for what amounts to a personal profile that can include name, birth date, job title, income range, e-mail and home addresses, home phone numbers, and interests.

The data can then be used to help publications make themselves more attractive to advertisers.

However, some privacy groups are crying foul. Chris Hoofnagle of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, D.C. says sites will be pushing for even more invasive disclosures as demographic data becomes muddied by peeved users who practice "self-defense" by registering themselves as 110-year-old surgeons from Bulgaria named Mickey Mouse.