Introduction
With its massive recent growth and popularity, the Internet faces a dilemma that other forms of media have already resolved: censorship. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) quickly recognized the issues surrounding censorship and in May 1995, its members began working on the Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS). W3C recently issued PICS specifications as a W3C Recommendation.
PICS establishes Internet conventions for label format and distribution methods, while dictating neither a labeling vocabulary nor who should pay
CAMBRIDGE, MA, September 11, 1995 . . A wide-ranging group of publishers, telecommunications companies, Internet and online service providers, and software firms are working together under the auspices of The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to develop an easy-to-use labeling and selection platform, called PICS, that empowers people worldwide to selectively control online content they receive through personal computers. PICS stands for Platform for Internet Content Selection, and is expected to be available royalty-free in early 1996.
PICS is the
P3P (Privacy Preferences Platform) was established by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to provide internet users with a sense of privacy when surfing the internet. W3C is the official web standards body, which essentially attempts to bring law and order to the Internet.
P3P started to allay consumer concern about the amount of data collected by web sites. The idea is that any site gathering information about its users should state why it wants the information, and how long information will be retained for. For example: "We are monitoring these
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