White House will continue to track Net

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http://www.businessweek.com/ap/tech/D8EQPR8G3.htm

 

White House will continue to track Net

By ANICK JESDANUN

AP Internet Writer

 

DEC. 30 3:50 P.M. ET The White House said Friday its Web site will

keep using Internet tracking technologies, deciding that they aren't

prohibited after all under 2003 federal privacy guidelines.

 

The White House's site uses what's known as a Web bug -- a tiny

graphic image that's virtually invisible -- to anonymously keep track

of who's visiting and when. The bug is sent by a server maintained by

an outside contractor, WebTrends Inc., and lets the traffic-analysis

company know that another person has visited a specific page on the site.

 

Web bugs themselves are not prohibited. But under a directive from the

White House's Office of Management and Budget, they are largely banned

at government sites when linked to cookies, which are data files that

let a site track Web visitors.

 

 

Cookies are not generated simply by visiting the White House site.

Rather, WebTrends cookies are sometimes created when visiting other

WebTrends clients. An analysis by security researcher Richard M. Smith

shows such preexisting cookies have then been read when users visit

the White House site.

 

The discovery and subsequent inquiries by The Associated Press

prompted the White House to investigate. David Almacy, the White

House's Internet director, said tests conducted since Thursday show

that data from the cookie and the bug are not mixed -- and thus the

2003 guidelines weren't violated.

 

Jason Palmer, vice president of products for Portland, Ore.-based

WebTrends, said Web browsers are designed to scan preexisting cookies

automatically, but he insisted the company doesn't use the information

to track visitors to the White House site.

 

The Clinton administration first issued the strict rules on cookies in

2000 after its Office of National Drug Control Policy, through a

contractor, had used the technology to track computer users viewing

its online anti-drug advertising. The rules were updated in 2003 by

the Bush administration.

 

Nonetheless, agencies occasionally violate the rules -- inadvertently,

they contend. The CIA did in 2002, and the NSA more recently. The NSA

disabled the cookies this week and blamed a recent upgrade to software

that shipped with cookie settings already on