Over the Christmas Holiday Break, I had a chance to talk to my daugher about email and anonymity. Like so many people, she has a Hotmail account to stay in touch with her friends. (and her dad) I still can't fathom being with friends all day long at school and then rushing home to stay in touch via email but that just adds to the long list of things about parenting that you're never really prepared for.

Ultimately, the conversation settled on junk mail. Anyone with a Hotmail account knows that you end up getting all kinds of messages from people that you don't even know about. Actually, you get so much that the programmers at Microsoft have a separate folder for you called "Junk Mail". These leads to two really good question. Dad - how do these people know my email address? And, Dad - how does Hotmail know what messages are junk and which aren't?

And, Dad, why don't you have a Hotmail account?

But, I do, and off we go to prove that I did.

Now, I don't use Hotmail on a regular basis. In fact, it had been months since I had used the account but I was still allowed to log into the service only to find that the account had been deactivated for non-use. That's probably a wise move since messages have to be stored somewhere, taking up large amounts of hard drive space. I was asked if I wanted to re-activate the account and so I said sure - go ahead.

The next step was fairly surprising. When creating or re-activating an account, you are given all kinds of opportunities to enhance the account. The very first option was to purchase additional storage space. I wasn't interested in that -- I was just here for the free account. So, it was a matter of reading up and down through all of the offers and legal talk a couple of times until at the very bottom there was a link to re-activate the free account. It took a while, but eventually was complete. Next come the offers. There are all kinds of offers to subscribe to various mailings depending upon interest, lifestyle, etc.

Nothing's worse than when a teacher hits a teachable moment, but this was one of them. We had a discussion about what would happen and who would know if we elected to choose any of these mailing lists. Next; let's extrapolate to any of the services available on the Internet. Do you see how others get to know your email address?

Most offers have a link to a Privacy Statement. Dad - nobody reads that stuff. Oh really? How about when you install software? Dad - you have to agree with the software or you can't install the software. If you don't agree, you don't get to use the software. It sure is a simple answer and cuts right through to the heart of the matter. If you want the software or you want the service, you must agree to the terms of sometimes a very long legal document.

For educators, this opens a very serious point of discussion with students. How much of that legal document do you need to understand? Ask any lawyer, and the answer is every word. Ask a student and the process is just an annoyance that must be dispatched with quickly to get to the real purpose.

How often does this occur? Daily, if you use a computer. By the minute, if you use the Internet. We don't go blindly surfing. Your computer has a unique address that specifically ensures that information you request gets to your computer. These privacy statements are interesting to read and understand. It's serious stuff, with all kinds of implications.

If you read only one such privacy statement, I'd recommend reading Yahoo's Privacy agreement. http://privacy.yahoo.com. The Internet, how it works, how cookies work, and more are all covered in very explicit detail. This, or a similar document, should be required reading before going online so that you totally understand how things work.

Is it a bad thing? Not necessarily. Probably the biggest issue about online usage is advertising. It costs a great deal of month to maintain networks and hardware so revenue raised by advertising is important. With all activities that make you ultimately the consumer, the more you know, the better off you'll be. Working with computer software and the Internet should be no different.

Whether it's the legalities of software use or online use, reading and understanding the fine print is the issue. Know what you're agreeing to, and the implications.

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