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April 23, 2001

IT Confidential
In all, 91% of children's Web sites now post privacy policies, compared with just 24% in 1998, says the FTC

By John Soat (jsoat@cmp.com)

he Federal Trade Commission last week settled the first civil case brought under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. Marking the first anniversary of the act, the settlement totaled $100,000 against three Web-site operators charged with collecting "personally identifying information from children under 13 years of age without parental consent," according to the FTC. The act requires Web sites oriented toward kids to post a comprehensive privacy policy, to notify parents of information collection practices, and to get verifiable parental consent before collecting personal information from children and sharing that information with third parties. In partnership, the three sites--GirlsLife.com, BigMailBox.com, and LookSmart, operator of Insidetheweb.com--allegedly collected names, addresses, phone numbers, and E-mail addresses of kids, then provided that data to third parties without notifying parents or getting consent. Along with the fines, the Web sites will be required to destroy all the data they've collected since the act took effect.

Don't expect too much from i2's forthcoming CRM application. The supply-chain software maker was supposed to launch the app a few weeks ago but held off to wait out the reaction to a bad earnings report. Financial analysts familiar with the application say it's "bare bones" CRM, with limited personalization capabilities. I2 says a big advantage of the app is that it will link to a company's supply chain to let sales personnel view where customer purchases are at any given time.

Is the sun slowly setting on Seattle? A new survey of application development trends shows the use of Visual Basic, Microsoft's original flagship development product, eroding. According to the latest version of Evans Data's North American Developer Survey, 46% of the 600 programmers queried use Visual Basic about 20% of the time. That's down from 62% last year who said they used VB about 29% of the time. The number of Java programmers grew 5% from last year, and the time they spent programming with Java rose from 14% to 20%, the survey says.

A federal judge last week nixed a Webcast of Timothy McVeigh's execution on May 16, saying it wasn't a news program and therefore wasn't protected by the Constitution. Several hacker groups offered their own Webcasts, saying the closed-circuit broadcast of the execution won't have much protection either.

Kevin English drives a Porsche 911. So what? Last week, English was given the vacant job of CEO of Covisint, the online automotive exchange run by DaimlerChrysler, Ford, and General Motors. English comes to Covisint from Credit Suisse First Boston, where he was managing director and CEO of E-commerce. Before that, English headed TheStreet.com, the formerly high-flying financial news site. Some observers were puzzled by English's appointment, pointing to his lack of industry knowledge. Three other candidates turned down the Covisint job before English accepted. As for the Porsche, not only is the German carmaker not a Covisint partner, one wonders how the high-priced sports car will go over in Southfield, Mich., where Covisint is headquartered. English says he'll probably buy a GM sport-utility vehicle when he moves to Michigan.

I don't know what kind of car Terry Semel drives, but can he code HTML? Last week, Semel was tapped for the top spot at Yahoo. Semel, a former Warner Bros. honcho who helped with the merger with Time, will take over as chairman and CEO of Yahoo May 1. Semel's hiring hints that Yahoo will go back to its media powerhouse aspirations and forget the business portal stuff.

Hey, I drive a Subaru; does that make me a player? Wait, I think I just answered my own question. Given the gas gouging this summer, what car should I drive? I could use some advice, or an industry tip, at jsoat@cmp.com or phone 516-562-5326.