TORONTO - In an age when most Web sites leave hidden cookies on your computer and when marketing-driven "free" PC offers are a dime a dozen, a 26-year-old Canadian is helping people use the Net the old fashioned way - anonymously.
"There is no Faustian bargain required," Austin Hill, president of Zero-Knowledge Systems, said in his keynote speech today at the "Computers, Freedom and Privacy" conference. Hill dismissed offers of so-called free equipment or Internet access in exchange for revealing personal information or looking at ads: "People don't need to sell their lives or their data cheap."
In a tie-less black suit and sporting a Vandyke goatee, Hill stood out from most other conference speakers and attendees, who clung to their casual dress and long hair. He founded Zero-Knowledge with his father and brother after selling off his first company, ISP TotalNet, which he founded at age 21 and is now Canada's third-largest ISP.
Hill's interest in privacy began at age 17 while working as a consultant showing companies how easy it was to hack into their networks. The advent of online direct marketing and other security exploits cleared the path for Zero-Knowledge to bust onto the scene and for politicians to jump on the bandwagon. "I wouldn't be surprised if privacy becomes a presidential issue this year," Hill says.
Privacy has long been a concern for consumers, but the ease with which data can be exchanged and compromised online has pushed it closer to the forefront. Although U.S. business has tended to put a higher importance on enabling commerce and advertising than privacy guarantees, the government has been struggling to hold onto anachronistic encryption-export policies in the name of national security and quibbling with the European Commission over strong data-privacy protections for citizens.
People are growing more concerned as they find out how readily some Web sites give up subscribers' identities when slapped with a subpoena, and as they realize how much information ad firms collect about them when they surf the Web. Public outcry led online ad agency DoubleClick to back off plans to merge its online and offline user profiles, but privacy advocates worry that DoubleClick might be just the tip of the iceberg.
Soon, mobile phones and OnStar computer systems in Ford and GM cars might pitch pizzas to people based on their location or dining plans. Likewise, the planned network intelligence in household appliances such as refrigerators that will "anticipate" people's needs.
"We're building tracking at every single point," so global positioning system locators can be used for direct advertising, Hill says. "I don't want to live in a world where my every move is tracked because I happen to own a cell phone."
The slow but steady moves toward creating digital-certificate authorities and networks that verify people for e-commerce, voting and other activities also are problematic, according to Hill. "We've developed an online national ID card" that can be hacked or otherwise compromised, he adds.
"Going forward, [privacy] will be one of the most important issues this century," Hill says, likening it to the civil rights and environmental movements of the 1960s. "The next five years will be the deciding factor."
If privacy is not built into the networking protocols and computer systems, "I believe privacy will be one of those things heard talked about like 'Remember the good old days?' " he says. "Like memories or old movies."
In addition to embedding privacy into technology, Hill says the industry needs self-regulation and governmental oversight through legislation. "No one of those alone will solve the problem."
In reality, Hill advocates using pseudonyms, not total anonymity. Zero-Knowledge's Freedom tool allows people to surf the Web, send and receive e-mail and participate in chat rooms without revealing personal information. Because people might want different identities and personal data revealed depending on what Web site they're visiting or what activity they are doing, they can create different pseudonyms.
"You can't build relationships using anonymity," Hill says. Users of Freedom can disclose
