P3P Web Privacy

Author: Cranor
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-05-01
Features: Since the emergence of commercial sites on the World Wide Web, there has been an ongoing struggle between the commercial needs of Web sites and the privacy rights of users. Web developers need to collect information about users, but they also need to demonstrate respect for user privacy. Therefore, the Privacy Preferences Platform (P3P), also known as P3P, was born as a technology that meets the interests of both parties. Developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), P3P provides Web users with greater control over their publicly shared information. P3P-compliant Web sites can declare their privacy policies to browsers. P3P-enabled browsers can then compare the site's policies with the user's privacy preferences and issue warnings about mismatches. As a result, users can be informed about how their privacy is handled on the Web. This book introduces P3P and the Online Privacy Act, explaining the inner workings of the P3P protocol and demonstrating how Web site developers can configure their sites to be P3P compliant. It guides readers step-by-step through the process of creating P3P policies, concise policies, and policy index files. At a turn of the pen, the author also shows developers how to build P3P compatibility into their products, dedicating the entire book to this topic. APPEL—a specification developed by W3C for declaring user preferences—and guidelines for P3P user agent interface development are also covered. As the chair of the W3C P3P Working Group and a co-author of the P3P 1.0 specification, Lorrie Faith Cranor provides a unique perspective on how and why to develop P3P. Additionally, we are honored to have Lawrence Lessig, a law professor at Stanford, write the foreword for this book. The number of developers using P3P is continuously growing. Today, P3P support is built into new browser versions, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. This book explains how P3P features work in these browsers and their impact on Web sites. Developers, privacy consultants, decision-makers, lawyers, public policy makers, and others interested in online privacy issues can all purchase this book as a reference.