The World Wide Web Consortium, an Internet standards group, may finalize P3P this summer. Richard Purcell, Microsoft's chief privacy officer, said the tools will help consumers better understand how sites track visits and pass along information to other parties. A formal announcement is expected in a few weeks. Purcell disclosed the company's intent during an interview at the Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference, meeting in Toronto through Friday. Internet users are increasingly concerned about Web sites that create profiles of e-mail addresses, favorite books and clothing sizes for marketing purposes.
Sites often disclose their intent in privacy statements that are difficult to find and understand.
The Microsoft tools, to be released this fall, will translate such statements into machine-readable form and let Internet users block access to sites that collect too much. Using the software, Web users will state what types of information they are willing to give, as well as whether they mind sharing that information with outside parties. Internet users will receive a warning before visiting sites that go beyond that level. Microsoft plans to make the tools for its browser, Internet Explorer, and for the competing Netscape browser. Still, critics believe Web sites won't have incentives to join, rendering such tools and standards meaningless.