NEWS RELEASE
For More Information Contact: Gary Ruskin (202) 387-8030
For Immediate Release: December 8th, 1998
ZapMe! Corp. Spies on Schoolchildren, Passes Data to Marketers
ZapMe! Corp., a new marketing company, secretly snoops on schoolchildren as they browse the Internet using ZapMe! computers, and then sends the information to advertisers and marketers, according to the Associated Press (AP). ”This is borderline child abuse,“ said Ralph Nader. “We want to warn parents about leaving their children in the care and custody of a corporate predator.”
According to AP, ZapMe! monitors students’ Web browsing habits, breaking the data down by age, sex and ZIP code. It delivers this information to advertisers and marketers, who use it to target students in school with laser-like precision.
“Schools do not exist to conduct surveillance on behalf of the corporate marketers of the world,” Nader said. “Schools should never help advertisers and marketers to hone their sales pitches, so that kids are manipulated more effectively to whine and nag their parents to buy products.”
“ZapMe! must explain precisely what it does with children’s personal information, which companies they send it to, and what those companies do with the information,” said Gary Ruskin, director of Commercial Alert.
ZapMe! currently operates computer networks in 20 schools, and expects to expand to 100 schools by the end of 1998. It places computers in schools which broadcast advertisements to schoolchildren.
ZapMe’s electronic surveillance is similar to the surveillance conducted by Big Brother in George Orwell’s classic dystopia, 1984. Orwell described rooms outfitted with television sets used by Big Brother for spying. The captions underneath state: “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU”
“ZapMe! wants to become the ‘Big Brother’ of the schools,” Ruskin said. “We hope to put an end to ZapMe!, along with their spying, prying and snooping.”
Regarding the advertising content delivered to schoolchildren, ZapMe! spokeswoman Randi Polanich admitted that ZapMe’s advertisers could do “pretty much whatever they want” in their advertisements to children, according to AP.
Commercial Alert is a new project to help parents, children, and communities defend themselves against harmful, immoral or intrusive advertising and marketing, and the excesses of commercialism. The web address for Commercial Alert is http://www.commercialalert.org.
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