820265
submission
+- Google using DoubleClick tracking cookies on Tuesday August 12 2008, @06:59AM dstates
Submitted
by
dstates
on Tuesday August 12 2008, @06:59AM
background: url(//a.fsdn.com/sd/topics/topicprivacy.gif); width:71px; height:53px;
privacy
dstates writes "In letters to the House Energy and Commerce Committee Internet and broadband companies, including Google, have acknowledged using targeted-advertising technology without explicitly informing customers. The revelations came in response to a bipartisan inquiry of how more Internet companies have gathered data on customers. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) said "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." Some companies like NebuAd have tested deep-packet inspection with some broadband providers Knology and Cable One. Google said that it had begun to use the DoubleClick ad-serving cookie that allow the tracking of Web surfing across different sites but said it was not using deep packet inspection. [Note: if the traffic is a Google search or email to or from your Gmail account, Google does not need deep packet inspection to see the contents of the message]. Google promotes the fact that its 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." Microsoft and Yahoo acknowledge the use of behavioral targeting. Yahoo says it allows users to turn off targeted advertising on its Web sites; Microsoft has not yet responded to the committee.
The Committee is considering legislation to require explicitly informing the consumer of the type of information that is being gathered and any intent to use it for a different purpose, and a right to say 'no' to the collection or use."
The Committee is considering legislation to require explicitly informing the consumer of the type of information that is being gathered and any intent to use it for a different purpose, and a right to say 'no' to the collection or use."
By nature, men are nearly alike; by practice, they get to be wide apart.
-- Confucius
All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Comments are owned by the Poster. The Rest © 1997-2010 Geeknet, Inc.
Google using DoubleClick tracking cookies 0 Comments More Login /
Get More Comments