Some Web Firms Say They Track Behavior Without Explicit Consent

Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post
Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Several Internet and broadband companies have acknowledged using targeted-advertising technology without explicitly informing customers, according to letters released yesterday by the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

And Google, the leading online advertiser, stated that it has begun using Internet tracking technology that enables it to more precisely follow Web-surfing behavior across affiliated sites.

The revelations came in response to a bipartisan inquiry of how more than 30 Internet companies might have gathered data to target customers. Some privacy advocates and lawmakers said the disclosures help build a case for an overarching online-privacy law.

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“Increasingly, there are no limits technologically as to what a company can do in terms of collecting information . . . and then selling it as a commodity to other providers,” said committee member Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), who created the Privacy Caucus 12 years ago. “Our responsibility is to make sure that we create a law that, regardless of the technology, includes a set of legal guarantees that consumers have with respect to their information.”

Markey said he and his colleagues plan to introduce legislation next year, a sort of online-privacy Bill of Rights, that would require that consumers must opt in to the tracking of their online behavior and the collection and sharing of their personal data.

But some committee leaders cautioned that such legislation could damage the economy by preventing small companies from reaching customers. Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) said self-regulation that focuses on transparency and choice might be the best approach.

Google, in its letter to committee Chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.), Markey, Stearns and Rep. Joe L. Barton (R-Tex.), stressed that it did not engage in potentially the most invasive of technologies — deep-packet inspection, which companies such as NebuAd have tested with some broadband providers. But Google did note that it had begun to use across its network the “DoubleClick ad-serving cookie,” a computer code that allows the tracking of Web surfing.

Alan Davidson, Google’s director of public policy and government affairs, stated in the letter that users could opt out of a single cookie for both DoubleClick and the Google content network. He also said that Google was not yet focusing on “behavioral” advertising, which depends on Web site tracking.

But on its official blog last week, Google touted how its recent $3.1 billion merger with DoubleClick provides advertisers “insight into the number of people who have seen an ad campaign,” as well as “how many users visited their sites after seeing an ad.”

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4 Responses to “Some Web Firms Say They Track Behavior Without Explicit Consent”

1. bean Says:
   August 12th, 2008 at 10:59 pm

   I think Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) can blow the privacy protection up At&t and FISA’s ASS! Congress is a lawless bunch of data mining criminals. Mr. Markey why don’t you earn your fiat earnings by READING the EXISTING bill of rights. Americans only needs a government free media to inform them about data collection. If Google is participating then I will use Cuil and encouage others to drop Google ads. WE DON’T NEED DECEPTIVE LIES ABOUT “protection” FROM LAWLESS CRIMINALS!

2. delphia Says:
   August 13th, 2008 at 3:46 pm

   We have come to a place of a lawless society. I’ve been aware for years that my phone is tapped and my sites monitored. We cannot count on our government nor the corporations (including the corporate media)for anything. China is doing quite well economically because no one there dares question the governments collusion with the corporations. This is not communism…this is fascism. The USA is in the same boat, but unfortunately it’s citizens continue to believe the illusion that this is a democracy.

3. Alienation Says:
   August 13th, 2008 at 4:23 pm

   Spy Threat – DHS Plan Too Little, Too Late – Communist China Has Huge Spy Network In U.S., Lou Dobbs CNN broadcast 7:16pm…

   There are 3500 confirmed Chinese front companies operating in the U.S. for the sole purpose of spying and theft of American technology according to the broadcast. Considering that DHS has known about this ever since the number 1, it would seem obvious that web site advertising and tracking is the least of our problems. Considering that DHS, CIA, FBI, NSA, NRO, and numerous other private and government entities actively spy on citizens, it would seem obvious that this article from the Washington Post is about as useful as a piece of poop on the sidewalk.