[Vision2020] Getting Around Logins at news sites

[Tim Lohrmann]

Hey, fewer log-ins--less spam, right?
    TL
 
 
We Don't Need No Stinkin' Login
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,64254,00.html

By Rachel Metz  
02:00 AM Jul. 20, 2004 PT

While many online newspaper readers are used to the idea of 
registering to read free content online, some news buffs are supporting and 
creating sites that help them beat the system with fake or shared login 
information that helps keep their personal information under wraps.

Increasingly, Web publishers, and in particular newspaper 
sites, are demanding that readers give up some of their personal 
information -- like e-mail addresses, gender and salaries -- in exchange for free access to their articles. The publishers say they need this information 
to make money from advertising. But anecdotal evidence and online chatter 
suggest readers are annoyed with the registration process. Some readers enter bogus information, while others are looking for ways to bypass the 
registration roadblocks.

<http://www.bugmenot.com>BugMeNot.com is a site that 
generates login names and passwords for registration sites. The site is a boon to  those who want to keep online anonymity or stamp out spam. According to the site's homepage, 14,000 websites have been "liberated" from 
registration bondage, and it's clear many people are doing whatever they can to avoid really logging in.

According to the site's creator, an Australian who wants to 
remain anonymous for fear of lawsuits, the site is getting about 
10,000 hits each day. In an e-mail interview, BugMeNot's creator said he 
started the site in November 2003 after being annoyed for some time with forced registration on some sites.

"BugMeNot.com seemed like a good idea because it's something 
that so many people want and it's such a simple concept to implement," he 
wrote.

One BugMeNot aficionado, Eric Hamiter, is doing his part to 
help the site's cause -- he created a <http://bugmenot.mozdev.org>plug-in for 
the Mozilla browser that gives users a pop-up window with login 
information when they land on a registration-only newspaper site.

"It helps protect privacy," Hamiter said.

There's also <http://www.mailinator.com>Mailinator for those 
who want to register but don't want to use their real e-mail address. And 
there's <http://www.spamgourmet.com>spamgourmet for "eating" unwanted 
e-mails. There's also <http://nytimes.blogspace.com/genlink>The New 
York Times link generator put together by an Illinois teen computer 
programmer, Aaron Swartz. Swartz's page lets bloggers post links to Times 
articles that can be viewed without having to log in to the site.

So far, he's gotten a lot of positive feedback, Swartz said.
 "People say, 'Oh, I use it all the time,'" he said.

But while users of such sites might think they're getting 
around invasive registration practices, newspapers that require users to log 
in don't necessarily see their policies as such.

Elaine Zinngrabe, general manager of
<http://www.latimesinteractive.com>latimesinteractive, which 
runs the Los Angeles Times' website, said the newspaper began requiring 
online user registration in June 2002 as a way to learn more about its 
readers and, it hopes, to drum up more advertising on the site. The Times 
asks readers to reveal things like their ZIP code, age, gender and income.

"I think if people are annoyed at anything, it's that it 
takes them the minute or whatever they have to do it," she said. "I'm 
sympathetic to it. We're constantly looking at how to make the process easier."

Zinngrabe sees registration as a sort of trade off for 
viewing online content. She's not thrilled about BugMeNot and services like 
it, but said she's not worried about users sharing login information. This 
is, in part, because the Los Angeles Times' site lets users personalize 
their news by signing up for newsletters and getting local weather.

"It doesn't make you necessarily want to share, because you 
want to get what you want to get, and you don't want other people messing 
around with that or changing it or whatever," she said.


Dipik Rai, a business manager with
<http://www.knightridder.com/digital>Knight Ridder Digital 
who runs online registration for some of the company's newspapers, is also 
unfazed by those trying to avoid creating their own user profiles. Knight 
Ridder Digital began rolling out registered-user-only sites in October 2003, 
and added several more this spring. Now, nine of its 27 daily newspaper 
sites require registration to view articles, he said.

Some people will always be unhappy about having to register, 
Rai said, but the company has received only a small number of complaints 
about it.

Like Zinngrabe, Rai doesn't see the information gathering as 
an invasion of readers' privacy. He said Knight Ridder Digital is very 
upfront about why it's gathering data, which it uses to figure out who's using 
its site and to target advertising.

For both companies, registration seems to be working. Rai and 
Zinngrabe said initially their sites saw a downturn in use after 
initiating compulsory logins, but levels soon returned to normal. 
According to Rai, Knight Ridder Digital has about 2 million members.

And as for the possibility that the data they're gathering 
might not be an accurate reflection of their readership, both said the vast 
majority of it appears to be when checked against things like third-party 
aggregate data and the number of registration-confirmation e-mails sent out 
that bounce back.

Still, "I think there's always going to be some element, some 
percentage of people that are going to want to get around the process," Rai 
said.

Lee Tien, a senior staff attorney with the 
<Electronic ">http://www.eff.com>Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco, is one of them. When he  enters a site that asks for his name, rank and serial number, Tien enters fake information or uses another person's ID.

Tien said the EFF, a nonprofit that seeks to protect people's 
rights online, has "a very clear bias in favor of no registration." 
But he acknowledged newspaper sites can certainly ask for it and 
users can decide whether to comply.

"I can't really fault The New York Times any more than I can 
fault any
other business for asking for information," he said. "I don't 
think it's
necessary. I'd prefer if they didn't do it, but I can't say 
it's wrong or
they shouldn't do it."

Those fearing possible legal troubles for running sites like 
Swartz's and BugMeNot might be assuaged by Tien's assertion that it's 
unlikely newspapers would try to go after them.

"If it's a free service in the first place, they're not 
exactly losing money," he said.



		
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