To Aim Ads, Web Is Keeping Closer Eye on You

[flashl]

Source: NY Times

A famous New Yorker cartoon from 1993 showed two dogs at a computer, with one saying to the other, “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.”

That may no longer be true.

A new analysis of online consumer data shows that large Web companies are learning more about people than ever from what they search for and do on the Internet, gathering clues about the tastes and preferences of a typical user several hundred times a month.

These companies use that information to predict what content and advertisements people most likely want to see. They can charge steep prices for carefully tailored ads because of their high response rates.

...

“When you start to get into the details, it’s scarier than you might suspect,” said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a privacy rights group. “We’re recording preferences, hopes, worries and fears.”

NY Times

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/technology/10privacy.html

---

Somebody is watching you!

[ConcernedCanuk]

1. "Somebody is watching you" - I KNOW!

.
.
.

It amazes me that many sites I go to come up with ads to find jobs/girlfriends IN THE TOWN I AM LIVING IN!

I'm a guy, and all ads are for girls - so they know I'm a guy, and either know/figure I am heterosexual.

Some even have my name, some first name, and some first and last.

So, if Ad companies know,

So does big brother.

[flashl]

2. For one, IP addresses are liken to zipcodes. nt

[nebenaube]

3. geoipCity...

you should see their organization database...

http://www.maxmind.com/app/mylocation

[peacetalksforall]

4. Do they sell it to Poindexter or are they paid? will all due sarcasm

or dig for truth.

[flashl]

5. Probably both, sales and government usages

More from article ...

A new analysis of online consumer data shows that large Web companies are learning more about people than ever from what they search for and do on the Internet, gathering clues about the tastes and preferences of a typical user several hundred times a month.

These companies use that information to predict what content and advertisements people most likely want to see. They can charge steep prices for carefully tailored ads because of their high response rates.

---

ChoicePoint finds wealth in information
Giant transforming itself into a private intelligence service

WASHINGTON - It began in 1997 as a company that sold credit data to the insurance industry. But over the next seven years, as it acquired dozens of other companies, Alpharetta, Ga.-based ChoicePoint Inc. became an all-purpose commercial source of personal information about Americans, with billions of details about their homes, cars, relatives, criminal records and other aspects of their lives.

As its dossier grew, so did the number of ChoicePoint's government and corporate clients, jumping from 1,000 to more than 50,000 today. Company stock once worth about $500 million ballooned to $4.1 billion.

Now the little-known information industry giant is transforming itself into a private intelligence service for national security and law enforcement tasks. It is snapping up a host of companies, some of them in the Washington area, that produce sophisticated computer tools for analyzing and sharing records in ChoicePoint's immense storehouses. In financial papers, the company itself says it provides "actionable intelligence."

MSNBC

[flashl]

6. Forner spyware company now advertising tracker ...

Shouldn't User Tracking Advertising Be Opt-In?
At least one UK ISP seems to think so...


We've been tracking the growing number of advertising firms who are using deep packet inspection gear on the ISP network to track which websites you visit, in order to send you targeted advertisements. While it's a nice deal for ISPs who make additional revenue, and a nice deal for the companies in question (NebuAD, Phorm), it's not much of a deal for consumers, who won't see lower broadband prices and get the added bonus of privacy worries.

We've talked with NebuAD's CEO, who says ISPs at least have to alert their customers they're using it. The few ISPs we've seen deploy these services so far (CenturyTEL comes to mind) haven't exactly been noisy about it, and usually implement the service so it's opt-out only. Reacting to customer concerns, one British ISP named TalkTalk says they're making it opt-in only.

...

If U.S. customers aren't going to see price cuts thanks to the added revenue these services provide, it would at least be nice to see them implemented as opt-in. Of course if it's opt-in most customers won't use it, which threatens the added revenue ISPs receive.

---

Phorm Gets Proactive in Addressing Privacy Concerns
But is anonymizing their data really enough?

Phorm, a former spyware company that helps ISPs profit by tracking user browsing habits through deep packet inspection hardware. This controversial activity has caused Phorm to go on the PR offensive, engaging in interviews to explain its privacy policies and describing the way that it protects consumers through anonymizing its data collection.

The explanations about their privacy methods include the fact that they are being audited by two independent companies designed to act as a check against their procedures. However many people say that this simply isn’t enough and are acting on this by signing an online petition asking that the Prime Minister stop allowing this kind of activity. In regards to the accusations that the company used to be deeply involved in the spyware business, Phorm says that they were involved only in adware and that they chose to leave the business because of its questionable practices.