`contracts' Used To Spy On Surfers

The Age

Tuesday September 11, 2001

SUE CANT

PEOPLE failing to read Internet agreements are allowing businesses to legally use spyware - software to monitor Web surfers' use of the Internet - to track consumer habits, a research project has found.

Dr Adam Gatt, of RMIT University, found software programs are being used to track consumer tastes and preferences through click-wrap agreements that purport to enforce copyright.

Dr Gatt is studying the enforceability of click-wrap agreements on the Internet, which he says have replaced so-called shrink-wrap agreements enforcing copyright that comes with software.

Click-wrap agreements are non-negotiable agreements, where a user must agree to terms and conditions before accessing a website, downloading software or buying a product or service. The user generally cannot proceed unless they click the ``I Accept" icon.

However, the programs can be used to track and/or profile the user's Internet surfing habits, activities and choices made while they move across the Internet.

Profiles can end up in a database that is sold to marketing companies.

``If this is the information superhighway, then the use of spyware is highway robbery," Dr Gatt says. ``They are playing on the fact that people don't read these agreements."

In Dr Gatt's survey, he received 700 responses from users from more than 30 countries, most replying that they didn't read such agreements.

The survey can be found at: http://seven.bf.rmit.edu. au/ adam