Web content personalization and privacy seem to be incompatible. To provide users with customized information, web site publishers must learn about the interests and online habits of individual users. This puts the privacy of users at risk. Yet there is no question that personalization is useful, especially in an era of "information overload". So how is it possible to find a compromise between personalization and privacy? One company that is stepping into the minefield is Yo! (www.yo.com),

which plans to launch its services early next year. Yo! will be the safekeeper of information about individual web users. It will not know your identity, but will gather data based on a registration form and using cookies, the tags that web site operators plant in our computers to track web site visits.

Yo! aims to create a network of affiliated web sites. When a user visits one of those sites he or she will automatically see items highlighted with a Yo! symbol next to items that may be of interest, based on the user's profile. Since Yo! does not share the profile information it builds with any of the web sites in its network, the risks to the privacy of the individual are limited. As Charles Jones, founder of Yo!, points out, the success of the company will be based on its ability to build trust among web users. While Yo! is targeting its services at consumers and aims to draw revenues from sales commissions, there would seem to be an opening for similar "trusted third party" personalization services in every field. Perhaps this is the way to get personalization with privacy. [email protected]