Online interactions often involve the exchange of personal information—such as physical and email addresses, gender, credit card number and personal preferences—and you've probably wondered whether the Web site you're interacting with is really using your personal information for only the reasons you intended. For example, when you buy a book on the Internet, is the online bookstore using your address information just to ship your book or also to send you mailings based on your shopping behavior and your personal preferences (which the bookstore’s Web site has been recording)? The Web site probably has a privacy statement that might say that the site won’t use your personal information for targeted mailing campaigns—but if you did find the privacy statement, did you read this five-page small-capped document? Many Web sites don't have an easy-to-use mechanism that lets customers quickly check a site's real intentions regarding their personal information. . . .
