[Infowarrior] - Some Web Firms Say They Track Behavior Without Explicit Consent

[Richard Forno]

Some Web Firms Say They Track Behavior Without Explicit Consent

By Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 12, 2008; D01

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/11/AR2008081102270_pf.html

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.

"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."

"Google is slowly embracing a full-blown behavioral targeting over its  
vast network of services and sites," said Jeffrey Chester, executive  
director of the Center for Digital Democracy. He said that Google,  
through its vast data collection and sophisticated data analysis  
tools, "knows more about consumers than practically anyone."

Microsoft and Yahoo have disclosed that they engage in some form of  
behavioral targeting. Yahoo has said it will allow users to turn off  
targeted advertising on its Web sites; Microsoft has yet to respond to  
the committee.

More than a dozen of the 33 companies queried said they do not conduct  
targeted advertising based on consumers' Internet activities. But,  
Chester said, a number of them engage in sophisticated interactive  
marketing. Advertisers on Comcast.net's site, for instance, are able  
to target advertising based on "over 3 billion page views" from "15  
million unique users."

Comcast spokeswoman Sena Fitzmaurice stressed that the data are  
gathered exclusively for advertising on that site.

In their letters, Broadband providers Knology and Cable One  
acknowledged that they recently ran tests using deep-packet-inspection  
technology provided by NebuAd to see whether it could help them serve  
up more relevant ads, but their customers were not explicitly alerted  
to the test. Cable One is owned by The Washington Post Co.

Both companies said that no personally identifiable information was  
used and that they have ended the trials. Cable One has no plans to  
adopt the technology, spokeswoman Melany Stroupe said. "However, if we  
do," she said, "we want people to be able to opt in."

Ari Schwartz, vice president of the Center for Democracy and  
Technology, said lawmakers are beginning to understand the convergence  
across platforms. "People are starting to see: 'Oh, we have these  
different industries that are collecting the same types of information  
to profile individuals and the devices they use on the network," he  
said. "Internet. Cellphones. Cable. Any way you tap into the network,  
concerns are raised."

Markey said yesterday that any legislation should generally 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 push for overarching legislation is bipartisan. "A broad approach  
to protecting people's online privacy seems both desirable and  
inevitable," Barton said. "Advertisers and data collectors who record  
where customers go and what they do want profit at the expense of  
privacy."

As of yesterday evening, the committee had posted letters from 25  
companies on its Web site.