[Infowarrior] - Web-monitoring software gathers data on kid chats

Mon Sep 7 17:24:21 UTC 2009

Web-monitoring software gathers data on kid chats
By DEBORAH YAO (AP) – 2 days ago

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i5CjgMEdrwRm3JxeglUykMAHAYmAD9AGNVM00

Parents who install a leading brand of software to monitor their kids'  
online activities may be unwittingly allowing the company to read  
their children's chat messages — and sell the marketing data gathered.

Software sold under the Sentry and FamilySafe brands can read private  
chats conducted through Yahoo, MSN, AOL and other services, and send  
back data on what kids are saying about such things as movies, music  
or video games. The information is then offered to businesses seeking  
ways to tailor their marketing messages to kids.

"This scares me more than anything I have seen using monitoring  
technology," said Parry Aftab, a child-safety advocate. "You don't put  
children's personal information at risk."

The company that sells the software insists it is not putting kids'  
information at risk, since the program does not record children's  
names or addresses. But the software knows how old they are because  
parents customize its features to be more or less permissive,  
depending on age.

Five other makers of parental-control software contacted by The  
Associated Press, including McAfee Inc. and Symantec Corp., said they  
do not sell chat data to advertisers.

One competitor, CyberPatrol LLC, said it would never consider such an  
arrangement. "That's pretty much confidential information," said  
Barbara Rose, the company's vice president of marketing. "As a parent,  
I would have a problem with them targeting youngsters."

The software brands in question are developed by EchoMetrix Inc., a  
company based in Syosset, N.Y.

In June, EchoMetrix unveiled a separate data-mining service called  
Pulse that taps into the data gathered by Sentry software to give  
businesses a glimpse of youth chatter online. While other services  
read publicly available teen chatter, Pulse also can read private  
chats. It gathers information from instant messages, blogs, social  
networking sites, forums and chat rooms.

EchoMetrix CEO Jeff Greene said the company complies with U.S. privacy  
laws and does not collect any identifiable information.

"We never know the name of the kid — it's bobby37 on the house  
computer," Greene said.

What Pulse will reveal is how "bobby37" and other teens feel about  
upcoming movies, computer games or clothing trends. Such information  
can help advertisers craft their marketing messages as buzz builds  
about a product.

Days before "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" opened in  
theaters on July 15, teen chatter about the movie spiked across the  
Internet with largely positive reactions.

"Cool" popped up as one of the most heavily used words in teen chats,  
blogs, forums and on Twitter. The upbeat comments gathered by Pulse  
foreshadowed a strong opening for the Warner Bros. film.

Parents who don't want the company to share their child's information  
to businesses can check a box to opt out.

But that option can be found only by visiting the company's Web site,  
accessible through a control panel that appears after the program has  
been installed. It was not in the agreement contained in the Sentry  
Total Home Protection program The Associated Press downloaded and  
installed Friday.

According to the agreement, the software passes along data to "trusted  
partners." Confidentiality agreements prohibit those clients from  
sharing the information with others.

In recognition of federal privacy laws that restrict the collection of  
data on kids under 13, the agreement states that the company has "a  
parent's permission to share the information if the user is a child  
under age 13."

Tech site CNet ranks the EchoMetrix software as one of the three best  
for parental control. Sales figures were not available.

The Sentry and FamilySafe brands include parental-control software  
such as Sentry Total Family Protection, Sentry Basic, Sentry Lite and  
FamilySafe (SentryPC is made by a different company and has no ties  
with EchoMetrix).

The Lite version is free. Others range from $20 to download and $10 a  
year for monitoring, to about $48 a year, divided into monthly payments.

The same company also offers software under the brands of partner  
entities, such as AmberWatch Lookout.

AmberWatch Foundation, a child-protection nonprofit group that  
licenses its brand to EchoMetrix, said information gathered through  
the AmberWatch-branded software is not shared with advertisers.

Practically speaking, few people ever read the fine print before they  
click on a button to agree to the licensing agreement. "Unless it's  
upfront in neon letters, parents don't know," Aftab said.

EchoMetrix, formerly known as SearchHelp, said companies that have  
tested the chat data using Pulse include News Corp.'s Fox Broadcasting  
and Dreamworks SKG Inc. Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures recently  
signed on.

None of those companies would comment when contacted by the AP.

EchoMetrix has been losing money. Its liabilities exceeded its assets  
by nearly $25 million as of June 30, according to a regulatory filing  
that said there is "substantial doubt about the company's ability to  
continue as a going concern."

To get the marketing data, companies put in keywords, such as the name  
of a new product, and specify a date range, into Pulse. They get a  
"word cloud" display of the most commonly used words, as well as  
snippets of actual chats. Pulse can slice data by age groups, region  
and even the instant-messaging program used.

Pulse also tracked buzz for Microsoft Corp.'s "Natal," a forthcoming  
Xbox motion-sensor device that replaces the traditional button-based  
controller. Microsoft is not a client of Pulse, but EchoMetrix used  
"Natal" to illustrate how its data can benefit marketers.

Greene said children's conversations about Natal were focused on its  
price and availability, which suggested that Microsoft should assure  
teens that there will be enough stock and that ordering ahead can lock  
in a price.

Competing data-mining companies such as J.D. Power Web Intelligence, a  
unit of quality ratings firm J.D. Power and Associates, also trolls  
the Internet for consumer chats. But Vice President Chase Parker said  
the company does not read any data that's password-protected, such as  
the instant message sessions that EchoMetrix collects for advertisers.

Suresh Vittal, principal analyst at Forrester Research, said  
EchoMetrix might have to make its disclosures more apparent to parents.

"Are we in the safeguarding-the-children business or are we in the  
business of selling data to other people?" he said. If it's the  
latter, "it should all be done transparently and with the knowledge of  
the customer."