[Don't have to wait. Net sites that issue you a userid/password already have
caught onto various ways to let subscribers jump right into the content, or
into the database query. Examples are HotWired, InfoSeek, Information Futures,
and the Bradford Robotic Telescope.]
MSN'S PRIVACY STRATEGY
The design of Microsoft Network incorporates the new data-privacy rules
that reflect the European Union's strict rules about consumer consent and
notification for data gathering, confidentiality, security, transnational
data flows, etc. (see URL: < http://www.epic.org >). Whereas America
Online sells its lists and CompuServe rents them for one-time mailings,
Microsoft promises to never sell to or share with outside companies any
personal data about its customers. Each MSN content provider will be
required to ask you whether you want to be on its marketing list and to
give you a simple way to remove yourself from such a list. (New York Times
1995-07-24 C4)
[By golly, give the big M credit for getting this one right. When I first saw
the alpha version of Ziff's network software, standing up on a show floor in
June 1994, I had a long conversation on the subject of privacy with the person
demoing it. He could only guarantee me that Ziff was committed to subscriber
privacy. At that time rumors were already circulating about the dismemberment
and sale of Ziff's magic kingdom. Would the purchaser of the online service make
the same guarantee? At least we can be pretty sure that Microsoft won't sell
MSN anytime soon.]
>>From TidBITS:
[This is the sort of leap two-to-five years ahead of the field that Apple
used to do routinely. It gives me hope that maybe they can hold onto their
10% share. (Thanks to the PowerMac that number hasn't slipped -- two million
have been sold since introduction.)]
**Stormin' Norman** -- Apple recently tapped Apple Fellow Don
Norman to serve as vice president of Apple's Advanced Technology
Group, which is responsible for researching and managing future
Apple technologies and product designs. Dr. Norman was previously
working as Apple's "User Experience Architect," and is a widely-
recognized expert on human interface design. He'd previously led
UCSD's Psychology and Cognitive Science departments, and has
published several books, including The Design of Everyday Things,
Turn Signals Are the Facial Expressions of Automobiles, and
Things That Make Us Smart, all of which we recommend highly if
you want to get a sense of where Don's thoughts and interests lie,
and thus what he might be talking about within Apple.
[Yee-hah. More joyous news for those of us whose online lives are inex-
tricably intertwingled with Macintoshes. TidBITS goes on to review three,
count-'em, list-server software packages now available on Macintosh, where
at the beginning of the year there were none. Apple has not done all it
could, perhaps, to dance away with its early lead in Internet software;
but there's still a lot of vitality in the Mac Internet market.]
[And we finish today with a word from Windows 95. Bill Gates recently called
it a zero-market-share OS feeding the subscriber base of a zero-market-share
online service -- so, Justice Dept., what's the big deal?]
>>From Netsurfer Digest:
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