Privacy : what developers and IT professionals should know

When you are on a Web site you don't know well, and you are asked tocomplete an online form, if you are like most people you immediately weigh inyour mind issues of how private the information you provide will be kept.Studies have shown that 64% of consumers have left a Web site because ofconcerns about privacy, and that online retailers lose $6.2 billion a year in salesbecause of privacy issues.

Lack of privacy conditions in building an applicationor a web site is a liability; conversely, a web site where the consumer feels thattheir privacy will be guarded is a competitive advantage.

In our securityconsciousworld privacy is a topic of concern right up there with identity theftand spam.

Yet until now there has not been one source of information fordevelopers on how to develop applications and web sites that will take intoconsideration privacy concerns.

JC Cannon draws upon the experience he haslearned from his role in the corporate privacy group at Microsoft to givedevelopers a complete guide to including privacy in their development process.It covers topics such as spam, digital rights management, the Platform forPrivacy Preferences (P3P) project, and protecting database data.