A common conclusion among the winning essays submitted in this year's annual CollegeNET (www.corp.collegenet.com) scholarship competition is a call for a more aggressive federal legislation regarding privacy practices on the Internet. The concerns expressed by the scholarship essayists help explain why more and more companies and investors staking their fortunes on "mining" personal profile information are beginning to see their business models collide with a backlash of negative sentiment. CollegeNET's scholarship essay competition revealed plenty of skepticism in the college community regarding common practices such as "opt-out" schemes for mining student data.

First place winner Emily E. Dirsh, a freshman at the College of Charleston, wrote: "...there are tiny "consent" boxes where the user can give consent for the information to be shared. However, at these sites, the boxes are already checked. In order not to give consent, the user must first notice the boxes, and then uncheck them. This kind of ploy is used to get consent from the unaware or rushed user." Commenting on the stricter privacy regulations in the European Union, Ms. Dirsh noted the irony that "these laws, however troubling for American business, were actually inspired by American laws such as the Fair Credit Reporting Act of 1971 and the Privacy Act of 1974." Seeing the potential for a win-win if stricter regulations are developed and enforced, she wrote: "The government needs to enact and enforce privacy standards on Internet companies in order to protect the consumer, which will in turn keep them buying, which will protect business."

Second place winner Caitlyn King, a junior at Georgia Tech, explained that "the government will not act without motivation, though, and it is important for consumers to continue to demand that their personal information be protected. Though the struggle to gain control over one's social security number and billing address is not as impassioned and glorified as fighting for one's physical freedom from oppression, the principle is the same. Our identity is the only thing that we truly own and control..."

According to Patricia Summers, vice president of marketing for CollegeNET: "Reading these essays was a real eye-opener. The writers pilloried the expedient treatment of personal data on the Internet, and pointed up the conflicts of interest inherent to Internet self-regulation." The full text of the winning essays has been published by CollegeNET at www.collegenet.com/scholarships/99.html.

College of Charleston and Georgia Tech admissions directors expressed their heartfelt congratulations to the winners.

Don Burkard, Dean of Admissions and Adult Student Services at the College of Charleston wrote: "Our sincere congratulations to Emily Dirsh on receiving the first place award in CollegeNET's scholarship essay contest. Congratulations also to CollegeNET for welcoming and fostering this kind of intelligence and creativity on the part of one of our most distinguished students."

Deborah Smith, Director of Admissions at Georgia Tech wrote: "I'm thrilled that Caitlyn King, an outstanding student here at Georgia Tech, won a scholarship from CollegeNET! CollegeNET's competition inspires students to think about important topics and rewards excellent writing."

About CollegeNET, Inc:
CollegeNET, Inc. (www.corp.collegenet.com) is a leading provider of Internet forms commerce service to the education and non-profit sector. CollegeNET served forms create workflow savings for end-users and institutions by eliminating the costs, delays and mistakes associated with paper-based forms processing. Forms transparently served by CollegeNET include admissions applications, financial aid applications, alumni registration, housing, and financial aid forms. CollegeNET, Inc. serves over 500 client institutions including Virginia Tech, Georgia State U, University of Washington, and the University of Nebraska. The Company is headquartered at One SW Columbia, Suite 100, Portland, Ore. 97258.