A blank E-mail, for example, sent in order to receive a password, will often contain the user's real name and place of employment. These are fields most users have entered into their E-mail software without a second thought. What worries Internet privacy experts is not the individual snippet of data somehow acquired by a Web site, but the aggregate of all these bits of information. Even if the site tells you they're collecting information, there is not much you can do. For instance, Web browsers enable users to turn off the cookie feature, but many sites will deny access unless their cookies are accepted.
Data collection is just one part of the problem.
Profiles created from on-line information have become valuable marketing tools. In most cases, you do not know. Last June, EPIC released a report detailing a review it had conducted of 100 of the most frequently visited Web sites. The organization found that only 17 of the 100 had explicit privacy policies posted, and many of those were hard to find. None of the sites allowed users to access data collected about them, and of the 24 that used cookies, not one informed users that information was being placed on their systems.