BOSTON (AP) -- Internet privacy advocates raised concerns Tuesday about a technology
firm that is quietly tracking the information consumers are getting from
pharmaceutical companies' Web sites.
By using tiny computer files such as ``cookies,'' Pharmatrak can track people's
movement throughout the site on impotence, AIDS, or any other medical condition.
Pharmatrak then shares that information with the drug companies -- and the Web surfer
may never know.
The Boston-based company is not subject to the restrictions put in place last month by
online advertising services to protect consumer privacy. Advertisers agreed to inform
computer users when they are being monitored, but because Pharmatrak isn't an
advertiser, it doesn't need to.
Mikki Barry, an attorney with Great Falls, Va.-based Internet Policy Consultants, said
she's worried there are no laws to prevent Pharmatrak or other similar companies from
passing around individuals' private information.
On its Web site, Pharmatrak says ``in the future, we may develop products and services
which collect data that, when used in conjunction with the tracking database, could
enable a direct identification of certain individual visitors.''
Pharmatrak officials did not immediately return several calls or an e-mail sent
Tuesday to the company president and chief executive Michael Sonnenreich.
Sonnenreich told The Washington Post in Tuesday's edition his company is ``absolutely
rock-solid in protecting the integrity and privacy of these people.'' He also said
computer users who don't want to be tracked can disable the company's ``cookies,'' a
string of computer codes that identifies visitors to a site.
But Sarah Andrews, a policy analyst with the Washington D.C.-based Electronic Privacy
Information Center, said that's not a realistic solution.
``It's unfair to actually expect an average consumer to do that, even though its a
very easy thing to do,'' Andrews said. ``But people are intimidated, and they don't
know how.''
Many don't even know the cookies are there. Browsers aren't always set in a way to
alert users to their presence.
Pharmatrak shares the information it gathers with 11 of the largest drug companies in
the world, including American Home Products Corp., Aventis S.A., Glaxo-Wellcome PLC,
Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp., Pfizer Inc., and SmithKline Beecham PLC.
Aventis spokesman Lisa Kennedy confirmed her company uses Pharmatrak, but wouldn't
comment on the information that Aventis receives or about Aventis' views on computer
user's privacy rights.
Like many of its competitors, the Aventis Web site privacy statement does not mention
that Pharmatrak monitors its site and shares the information with other companies.
Richard M. Smith at Denver's Privacy Foundation calls the system of tracking that
Pharmatrak uses ``invisible Web bugs,'' and said his organization will be lobbying the
Federal Trade Commission and the Internet industry to only use Web bugs that are
visible to the average computer user.
``Web bugs are like the old subliminal ads thing from the '50s when they flashed a
Coke bottle on the screen for a fraction of a second,'' Smith said. ``We're not crazy
about them being used at all, but if they are used, then they should at least be
visible.''
