Before getting started, I would like to explain my role in the development of this technology. Almost a year ago, I started a new research group that would take a proactive role, looking at important public policy goals and seeing how we might achieve them through new communication technologies. In particular, we want to make an on-line environment where it is safe, fun and profitable for people to interact with others, even with people they do not know very well. I think PICS might smooth the process of notice and choice, which is an important component of fair information practices. PICS can allow sites to describe their information practices in a standard format.
Consumers can express their privacy preferences.
Software can then automatically compare the preferences to various sites' practices and notify the users only when there's a mismatch. As a result, users will not always have to read the fine print of notices about information practices. To show how PICS technology works, I will start by demonstrating the technology first for its original purpose, allowing parents to block children's access to inappropriate materials on the Internet, such as pornography and hate speech, without imposing global censorship on what can be distributed. Next, I will show a hypothetical privacy application of the same technology, blocking access to sites with information practices that are incompatible with an end-user's privacy preferences. Then I will speculate on ways to improve the technology for the privacy application, so that it supports choice rather than blocking, or even goes beyond notice and choice to a form of automated negotiation.