The development of agent technologies will culminate in Intelligent Software Agents, software programs, at times coupled with dedicated hardware, designed to complete tasks on behalf of their user. Given their role as representative of a person, a wealth of personal information will be generated and exchanged by the operations of agents. Privacy and confidentiality of actions will be amongst the major issues confronting the use of intelligent agents in the future. This Common Position aims at increasing awareness of the privacy risks associated with the use of agents and encouraging system designers to incorporate measures to protect privacy. Firstly, risks associated with the fact that an agent acts on behalf of a user.
User profiling is at the core of agents' activities.
Typically the user profile will contain identity and contact information, as well as a great deal of information about personal preferences. When an agent operates on a network personal data will be exchanged with the environment, and potentially disseminated to unauthorised third parties Secondly, risks associated with foreign agents that act on behalf of others. Agents, or generally their users, might be confronted with agents acting on behalf of others, These might deliberately collect personal data of individuals by performing traffic flow analysis, entering databases that contain information about the individual or entering the user-profile of an individual's agent. Such agents may even appear in disguise or overrule other agents. Recommendations Measures have to be taken to reduce the impact of the privacy risks of Intelligent Software agents.