The Michigan Attorney General’s office has held off filing formal complaints against the owners of four Web sites that have agreed to provide more complete disclosure about the use of the electronic tracking technology known as cookies.
Last month, the office of Attorney General Jennifer M. Granholm, randomly selected four Web sites to determine if third parties were placing cookies on visitors’ computers. All four were. “Our concern was that there was no disclosure that cookies were in use and no disclosure about what the third parties were doing with that information,” said spokeswoman Genna Gent.
The companies involved are: Ortho Biotech Inc., Raritan, NJ, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, which operates Procrit.com, a biotech site; Intimate Friends Network in Lake Worth, FL, which operates a pornography site; San Francisco-based Stockpoint Inc., whose stockpoint.com site offers stock trading; and AmericasBaby.com Inc. in New York, that sells baby clothes and furniture.
“We know this is just the tip of the iceberg,” Gent said. “There are millions and millions of Web sites and we know that if four out of four had a problem that there are other issues out there.”
Both Intimate Friends Network and Stockpoint Inc. have altered their online privacy policies. AmericasBaby.com and Ortho Biotech are in discussions to address the concerns. “We are continuing to monitor these and other sites,” Gent said. “We’ll continue to keep our eye on the privacy ball.”
The AG’s office selected the sites from four categories–healthcare, baby products, pornography and finances and investing–it said, “we know people are using the Web for.”
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