IS ONLINE SHOPPING SAFE?

Given all of the ways that we've talked about tracking, how' can it be safe to input your credit card into a Web site and shop online?

First, consider that most tracking occurs by and for advertisers. It is created by companies and carried out only with the collaboration of a series of other companies. Annoying? Possibly. But criminal? No. Although theoretically the tracking tools that you undoubtedly have on your computer would allow unauthorized capture of your credit card number as you type it in to a Web site form, it just doesn't make sense for advertisers to disrupt the system for a relatively small amount of money.

Second, remember that your financial liability from misuse of your credit or debit card number is small to none. With credit cards, if someone steals your number but not your card, you have no liability at all. Since online shopping never evolves your physical card, you have no financial exposure if someone steals your credit card number and uses it.

Third, the truly dangerous thing about online shopping has absolutely nothing to with your own computer. There has never been a case where someone's credit card number was stolen while an order was being placed. When you input sensitive information into a Web page, chances are very good that the seller has programmed its site to offer you protection by encrypting any data that you're sending it--a Web page that will encrypt information as it travels the Internet is identified by an icon of a key or lock in the bottom corner of your browser window.

More importantly, you are protected by sheer randomness. Of all the trillions of bits being shot back and forth over the Internet at any one time, what are the odds that someone is going to tag the ones coming from you? Most thieves will concentrate their efforts on bigger fish.

In this case, the Big Fish is the company you're doing business with. The Internet Security Alliance, which teaches businesses how to protect sensitive information, suggests that a company's computers, chock full of your credit card info and all of their other customers, are the ones that you really have to worry about. The bad guys who want to commit fraud are much less interested in tracking you individually than they are in breaking into a shopping site's database that stores your number along with about a million other people's. Before you give your credit card number to a Web site, you might want to know more about how they are making sure that your information won't be stolen and sold to criminal rings.

If it's a big player like Pottery Barn or the Gap, chances are good that the info you provide online is just as safe as the info stored in their databases when you buy over the phone or at their store. If the company is a smaller Internet-only operation, you might want to do a little checking. Call customer service. Look for a Better Business Bureau or TRUSTe seal. Once you recognize where the danger of online shopping lies, you can see that the question to answer is not "is online shopping safe" but rather "is online shopping with this Web site safe?" In most cases, the answer is yes.

CAN WHAT I WRITE IN AN E-MAIL BE TRACKED?

Absolutely! And you can probably bet that it is. Although there is a law that makes it illegal to read or share the contents of an a-mail, there are a couple of important loopholes.

Employers monitoring employees aren't covered (technically, they own the computer, the network, and the software, so they have a right to access the things they own. If the person you send the email to consents to share it, they don't need your permission. Or, as we have learned before, if law enforcement gets curious, they can take a peek with a court order.

Furthermore, anytime you send an a-mail from point A to point B, it goes through any number of Internet companies on its way. Each company has its own set of privacy' policies and its own interpretation of its obligations and rights. You can't even be stare that the companies are all governed by U.S. law. Finally, the biggest and most important exception is that a-mail is considered private only when it is in transit. Once the text resides on a computer somewhere for more than 1 80 days, it enjoys much less protection.

All of these exceptions mean that, if someone really wants to, he or she can most likely read your a-mail. Practical obscurity, the fact that there are too many a-mails from too many people to make yours worth caring about, will probably protect you in all but the most unusual circumstances. But the safest bet is not to count on it.