by Margie Whitnah (Fall 1999)

The web page I chose to help answer our research question of "How has the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) been involved in protecting the privacy of American Internet users engaged in electronic commerce?" was on the web site: http:///www.policy.com/ on the web page at URL: http://www.policy.com/news/dbrief/dbriefarc282.asp.

AUTHOR AND/OR INSTITUTION AUTHORITY

AUTHOR - The author of the web page article "FTC Report Says New Web Privacy Measures Not Needed" is Ellen Sung. She is an Assistant Producer on the Editorial Staff of Policy.com, a policy news and information service, the web site upon which Ms. Sung's web page resides. I found her position on the web site by checking out Policy.com's left-side menu frame which has a subheading near the bottom called "About Policy.com." From that listing, I clicked on "Staff." Neither the article's web page nor the web site for Policy.com provide any biographical information, so I was not able to definitively vouch for her education or other credentials. Unfortunately, their "Advanced Search" feature by which I could search for authors was still under construction so I couldn't bring up a list of her articles to determine her tenure on the staff of Policy.com. I did find quite a few "Daily Briefings" written by her on many subjects, including "Hunger in America," "Hate Crimes," etc. I also found an "Ellen Sung" listed as an Assistant Editor of a tax accounting publication last spring so, if it is the same person, perhaps she is relatively new to the Policy.com staff.

Interestingly, I did find some information on the web which made me curious to know if she is possibly the same "Ellen Sung" about whom two books for young adults have been written by an author named Marie G. Lee during the early 1990's. The subject of the first book is a Korean-American, Ellen Sung, a high school senior, who was the only minority student in her school in Minnesota and deals with issues of racism. The second book follows Ellen Sung to her freshman year at Harvard where she takes a creative writing course in addition to her pre-med courses while facing conflicts related to her Korean-American identity. Elsewhere on the web there was a line which referenced "Ellen Sung" as a Public Policy and Economics major at University of Chicago, born in Louisiana. I checked Yahoo's e-mail address search engine without finding her, though I'm sure I could just e-mail Policy.com or guess on her e-mail there. I didn't want to do that though and invade her privacy on the Internet!

INSTITUTION - Policy.com is the "Internet's leading policy news and information service. Drawing from its network of policy influentials, Policy.com showcases leading research, opinions and current events shaping public policy on dozens of issues including education, technology and healthcare. Policy.com is non-partisan and free to users. Policy.com's mission is to be the Internet's premier policy news and information service, and policy community online."

Policy.com is part of VoxCap Properties, a for-profit company and is privately held, financed by venture capital. "VoxCap.com's founders Diane Atwood and William R ('Sam') Sneed III, created Policy.com and its predecessor, Policy Street, to use the Internet and Internet technologies to fulfill three perceived needs of individuals interested in public policy - 'digital citizens' - and policy organizations:

1) To provide a free, accurate, comprehensive, timely and nonpartisan Internet site with a database of important, original policy-related content in an easily accessible format that enables and empowers digital citizens to work through significant policy issues to form their own opinions…

2) To provide organizations producing policy related-content with an Internet based service to assist them in disseminating their important policy-related content;

3) To provide a policy community online responsive to its users' needs to nurture and stimulate the exchange of policy information and ideas, …inform themselves…, …interact…, …influence their elected and appointed public officials…through their Web sites and email addresses."

Policy.com's e-mail, phone, and fax numbers were listed, but I didn't see the address on the site itself. VoxCap Properties' e-mail and phone contact information was listed, too.

Policy.com states that they are very aware of criticism aimed at Internet sites' accuracy and reliability as sources of information. Since the Internet is a new medium and "Internet aggregators" are new entities, editorial guidelines are still being formulated but in the meantime Policy.com is turning to established guidelines used by print, broadcast media, and journalists and their respective codes of ethics. In addition to their highly expert content providers, they invite any organization with policy-related content available on the Internet to participate in their Independent Content Provider Programs.

URL - The URL for the site: http://www.policy.com, shows that they use hypertext transfer protocol, chose to retain the standard "www," their server is named "Policy," and they are in a commercial domain. Though domains that end with .edu or.gov are usually most factual, this informational web page seems to be "trustworthy" even though it is commercial, ending in com. The full address for the web page which I'm evaluating, http://www.policy.com/news/dbrief/dbriefarc282.asp, additionally provides the directory and sub-directory information, such as the name of the menu directory choice under which the article can be found, "News," the type of news (dbrief for "Daily Briefing"), archives identification ("282"), and the file type, "asp." That file type stands for "active server page script file" but don't ask me to explain what that means!

CURRENCY OF INFORMATION AND COVERAGE

The document I was evaluating was the web page which included a dated article, "Updated: Wednesday, July 14, 1999, 8:06:12 AM EST." Besides the featured, original article by Ellen Sung about the FTC report, the page included abstracts of six other articles related to FTC Internet privacy policy issues, I presume selected by Ms. Sung, dated May 27 through July 13, 1999. The bottom section of the page provided links to six "Other Policy.com Resources" including more related "Daily Briefings" and other links which had 1999 dates. When I used the "pull down" menu to select "Document Info," I found the date "Last modified: Unknown." The coverage and currency of this type of informational page appears to be limited, however. I believe more recent articles could be added, but I don't believe they will be, so with this format information can become outdated in the sense that the most recent, related developments will not be there. The coverage therefore is selective and not comprehensive.

An interesting interactive feature on the page provided a simple "Yes/No" poll in which the viewers of that page could participate. The question is "Will most Web sites voluntarily strengthen protections on user privacy?" When I printed the page, the number of participants was 81 with a statistical chart and a percentage bar graph displaying the fairly evenly split results of the poll. I voted "No," just once, changing the total to 82. I wonder if it will accept more that one vote from my IP address? I didn't try it.

Ms. Sung's page also has links to eight other web sites which provide information from web pages for the Federal Trade Commission, various privacy organizations, and other Internet privacy resources, including Policy.com's privacy statement. The links, depending on the currency of those web sites, lead the viewer to newer or older information about related topics.

The Policy.com site is updated daily to keep the first feature on the left-side menu frame current. That feature is "Today's News." Policy.com had "Friday, October 15, 1999," under the "Document Info" menu choice. There are eight major section headings along the left frame menu which vary on currency dates for the 36 subheadings. The eight sections of the web site include: News & Events, Issue of the Week, Issues Library, Interact, Students, Community, Search, and "Policy.com." In browsing the "Issues Library" under "Privacy" articles, the most recent ones were dated August 27, 1999. From random checks in the site, I felt comfortable that most of the information was "appropriately updated and current."

AUDIENCE AND LEVEL

This web page I am evaluating seems to written for the same intended range of audiences that the Policy.com web site in general reaches. The Policy.com site offers an array of services for diverse needs of public policy consumers: legislators, lobbyists, librarians, employees in government, business people, educators, students, citizen activists, and especially those influential in shaping government. Policy.com is used by experts from think tanks, advocacy groups and from the government, particularly the White House, Senate, House, federal agencies and state governments. Businesses use it to learn about pending legislation. The media, universities, and concerned citizens find original source material on Policy.com to use and quote. I feel it is best suited to those desiring high level, more sophisticated informational needs. Policy.com markets aggressively by advertising online to gain new users especially on news sites such as The Washington Post and The New York Times, plus weekly fax and e-mail to target users, direct mail, and policy-related conferences.

CONTENT ACCURACY AND OBJECTIVENESS

The original article on the web page I selected seems accurate and objective judging from the articles I have reviewed on the subject of FTC involvement in issues of Internet privacy protection. Reference sources are not actually cited, per se, by Ms. Sung at the end of her article. Perhaps, better than that are the related abstracts of articles by other authors which she provides as links, in addition to other Policy.com resources listed on this same web page. This helps the reader to be able to substantiate the facts with credible documentation. Ms. Sung appears to be reporting on the issues by citing experts and their respective entities with differing perspectives, but she does not appear to be stating her opinion or biases. The particular article I selected is more of a brief overview than an in-depth analysis. Someone who wants more in-depth viewpoints could most likely find that information from other links that Ms. Sung provides on her page.

Based on my preliminary reviews of various parts of the web site, Policy.com, seems to fulfill its purposes as stated above, specifically in regard to providing an accurate, nonpartisan site. For example, in its efforts to be objective, it provides links in its "Reviewed publications" to a couple dozen policy publications from a wide spectrum of viewpoints, including The American Spectator, The Progressive, Mother Jones, and National Review. In using the links to articles provided under the web site's menu choices "Issues Library: Information Technology - - PRIVACY," the viewer can find a large archive of assorted articles and viewpoints on Internet privacy issues. Policy.com was named "Best General Political Site of 1998" by PoliticsOnline for its coverage of public policy and the issues that shape politics nationwide.

PURPOSE OF THE INFORMATION

The intended purposes of Ms. Sung's article, I felt, were to "inform" and "report the news." By providing all the additional links on her web page, however, the viewer also has access to obtaining: "particular points-of-view," i.e., links to privacy advocacy groups; possibly linking to web sites which "market a product," i.e., privacy software; sites which "advocate a cause," but probably not links directly to "someone's personal web page." I don't think these latter "purposes" were at the forefront of Ms. Sung's web site, but are important in supporting one of her primary purposes, "to inform" and "report the news." I feel Ms. Sung's "purposes" were fulfilled through this web page.

Though Ms. Sung's purposes are assumed and not clearly stated, the purpose of the Policy.com web site and Vox.Cap Properties are clearly stated on the site and delineated in my description of Policy.com in the above "Institution" section of this paper. For all that I have explored on this site, I think it definitely fulfills its stated purposes.

This web site, of course, cannot be categorized as a site dedicated solely to the purpose of informing its audience on Internet privacy issues. The site covers all public policy issues, but it does provide Ms. Sung's substantial, accurate, unbiased web page and links to many excellent "privacy" sites which fulfill their own purposes very well. I would recommend that anyone seeking valid, reliable, authoritative, and pertinent information on public policy issues related to education, technology, or healthcare should start with Policy.com as a trusted source.

I found it personally fulfilling to evaluate and become familiar with this web site. It gave me a much broader understanding of the scope of public policy. I even e-mailed my daughter to make sure she knew about it already because she's majoring in Public Policy. I imagine the whole Policy.com web site would be a very valuable resource for her to know in-depth since she'll be an intern in the Stanford-in-Washington, D.C., Program for winter quarter with some other Public Policy students. I give the site two thumbs up!

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