News Release: World Wide Web Consortium Demonstrates P3P Implementations

For more information please contact Janet Daly, W3C Head of
Communications, at +1 617 253 5884.


World Wide Web Consortium Demonstrates P3P Implementations

Companies Unveil Products Supporting W3C's Platform for Privacy 
Preferences

Contact -- 
Janet Daly, <janet@w3.org>, +1.617.253.5884 or +1.617.253.2613 

http://www.w3.org/ -- 21 June 2000 -- Over 30 leading technology 
companies, privacy advocates, and other organizations gathered in 
New York City, USA, to conduct the first public tests and 
demonstrate implementations of the Platform for Privacy 
Preferences Project (P3P), the World Wide Web Consortium's 
(W3C) Web privacy technology.

W3C's public "interoperability session" gave companies the 
opportunity to unveil new prototypes, to test them with other 
P3P services, and to provide input into the P3P design process. 
The prototypes are early versions of P3P-compliant tools expected 
to be offered to end users in the coming year.

P3P Makes Privacy Statements Understandable to Computers and 
Users Web users want to know how the sites they visit use their 
personal information. Some companies have made efforts to publicly 
disclose the privacy policies of their Web sites, but the policies 
are often difficult to find and understand. Web users need to be 
able to know quickly and with confidence whether a company engages 
in information sharing practices that meet or conflict with their 
wishes.

P3P enables anyone with a Web site to translate their privacy 
practices into XML-based P3P statements that can be retrieved 
automatically and easily interpreted by a P3P-enabled browser.

P3P-enabled services will enhance user control by putting 
privacy policies where users can find them, presenting policies 
in a form that users can understand, and enabling users to make 
informed decisions based on those policies. For ecommerce services 
and other Web sites, P3P can be used to offer seamless browsing 
experiences for customers without leaving them guessing about 
privacy.

Companies Deliver Prototypes, Make Sites P3P Conform
The interoperability session provided an opportunity for 
more than 10 organizations and companies from around the world 
to demonstrate P3P implementations.

The Electronic Network Consortium (ENC), Engage Technologies, 
IDcide, Microsoft Corporation, and YOUpowered demonstrated P3P 
client implementations. IBM and PrivacyBot demonstrated P3P policy 
generators, which enable sites to translate their privacy policies 
into P3P. Informal demonstrations of prototypes were provided by GMD, 
PrivacyExchange, and W3C.

In addition, many companies and organizations announced that their 
sites or portions of their sites are now P3P-compliant, including 
AmericaOnline, AT&T, the Center for Democracy and Technology, 
Engage Technologies, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Microsoft, Proctor and
Gamble, 
W3C, and the United States White House.

P3P Development Continues with International Contributions
P3P provides the framework for machine-readable privacy policies, 
so that users can access sites around the world and remain aware 
of how their information is being used. The P3P privacy vocabulary 
can be adapted to cover the diversity of privacy regulations around 
the world.

As part of ensuring a truly world-wide Web, W3C encourages international
contributions to P3P through review and implementation. P3P-compliant
software from Germany and Japan was demonstrated at this session, and
W3C
is planning a second interoperability event in Europe in September 2000.

W3C's P3P specification represents the broadest technical consensus on
how
to design tools that enhance privacy and commerce on the Web. P3P
technology is created through a consensus process with representatives 
from more than a dozen W3C Member organizations, including CDT, 
Citigroup, Crystaliz, Geotrust, GMD, IBM, Microsoft, NCR, NEC, 
Nokia, Phone.com, PrivacyBank, as well as invited privacy experts 
from around the world, including Ann Cavoukian, Ontario's 
Information and Privacy Commissioner.

The P3P specification is currently a W3C Working Draft. The 
experience of implementers around the world, including those 
participating at this interoperability session, will be critical 
in shaping the final technology design.


About the World Wide Web Consortium [W3C]
The W3C was created to lead the Web to its full potential by 
developing common protocols that promote its evolution and 
ensure its interoperability. It is an international industry 
consortium jointly run by the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science 
(MIT LCS) in the USA, the National Institute for Research in 
Computer Science and Control (INRIA) in France and Keio University 
in Japan. Services provided by the Consortium include: a repository 
of information about the World Wide Web for developers and users, 
and various prototype and sample applications to demonstrate use of
new technology. To date, over 420 organizations are Members of the
Consortium.

Received on Wednesday, 21 June 2000 12:33:46 UTC