Erosion of Privacy Online on Computer Show Agenda

Concern about the gradual erosion of Internet privacy safeguards and the desire to figure out the legal boundaries of using the Internet as an activism tool will rank among the most important topics being discussed this week as Internet civil liberties groups convene at the Computers, Freedom and Privacy 2002 conference in San Francisco. As with most facets of American life nowadays, the discussion of what Internet privacy is in the 21st century is inexorably linked to the conditions of the post Sept. 11 world, when the very nature of strong Internet privacy runs counter, some government officials believe, to insuring a strongly secure country against terrorism.