Latest News

An Overview

Who is DoubleClick?

How do cookies track users?

Who is Abacus?

What is the Abacus Alliance?

What is the scope of DoubleClick's advertising?

What are the privacy problems with the merger?

What should be done about DoubleClick?

Additional Resources

Questions?

 

 

 

 

Latest News (March 21, 2000)

An Overview

DoubleClick is an Internet advertising company that tracks Internet user behavior in order to better target banner ads. In order to add more information to these profiles of individual behavior, DoubleClick completed a merger on November 24, 1999 with Abacus Direct, a giant in offline marketing information. To be able to merge DoubleClick's already collected information with the data in the hands of Abacus Direct, DoubleClick had to personally identify all the information they previously collected.

On February 10, 2000, EPIC filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) alleging that DoubleClick's decision to personally identify their profiles constitutes "unfair and deceptive" business practices. Not only did DoubleClick deceive consumers by claiming in multiple earlier privacy policies that information collected would remain anonymous, the company also unfairly collects and links information about Internet users without their knowledge or control.

Later, DoubleClick revealed in a document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission that the FTC is currently investigating the company's privacy practices. In addition to the ongoing FTC investigation, DoubleClick faces several class action lawsuits, legal action from the Michigan Attorney General's office, and an informal inquiry from the New York State Attorney General's office.

On March 2, DoubleClick CEO Kevin O'Connor released a statement that says the company made a "mistake by planning to merge names with anonymous user activity across Web sites in the absence of government and industry privacy standards.''

On January 22, 2001, the FTC released a letter announcing that it had closed its investigation of DoubleClick.

Who is DoubleClick?

DoubleClick Inc. is an Internet advertising company that uses cookies stored on your computer to determine what sort of ads you might be interested in seeing based on your viewing habits. In the course of recording your viewing habits, DoubleClick is collecting information about your interests and tastes that includes the things you buy, the stories you read, and the websites you visit. Recently, the company has created controversy by personally identifying - linking up with a name or address -- these profiles of viewing habits.

How do cookies track users?

Cookies are small text files stored on Internet browsers that assign unique numbers to individual users. These cookies are usually placed on Internet users' computers by websites without their knowledge. Every time that a user returns to the site that placed a cookie on their browser, the cookie is sent back from your user to the original website, providing a way to "remember" over time particular individuals.

DoubleClick has chosen to take advantage of this technology for the purpose of learning about the behavior of Internet users. DoubleClick's banner advertisements appear across the Internet on thousands of different kinds of sites. Whenever one views a DoubleClick banner ad -- this does not require clicking on an ad -- you are downloading an image from DoubleClick. With the download, DoubleClick also places a cookie on users' browsers. If, like the majority of Internet users worldwide, you already have a cookie on your browser, then DoubleClick knows where you downloaded one of their ads. By keeping track of users surreptitously, DoubleClick is keeping a detailed record, often referred to as a profile, about what sites you visit.

Who is Abacus?

Abacus Direct Corp. is a company that collects information about consumers' purchasing habits through a database that tracks catalog subscriptions and purchases. Through this database, Abacus knows your credit card numbers, personal address, telephone number and information about your household income, family makeup and other habits.

What is the Abacus Alliance?

The Abacus Alliance is an unidentified consortium of companies that are passing on personal information such as names and addresses volunteered on their sites to DoubleClick. These actions by Abacus Alliance members is what allows DoubleClick to personally identify profiles.

What is the scope of DoubleClick advertising?

The most recent estimates indicate that DoubleClick serves ads and tracks users on more than 11,000 websites. In the four years of its existence, DoubleClick has collected roughly 100 million profiles of Internet users. According to Media Metrix, 45.8% of Internet users in the United States visited DoubleClick Network web sites in a single month (December 1998).

Are some of your favorite sites part of the DoubleClick advertising network? A partial list of websites operating within the DoubleClick network is available divided up by the following categories: Auto, Business, Entertainment, Tech, Travel, Women/Health.

What are the privacy problems with the merger?

Many of the privacy problems with the recent merger stem from the inability of the vast majority of consumers to either control the collection of information concerning Internet user behavior or the linking of profiles with real identities.

These personally identified profiles are currently used for the delivery of targeted online advertising. But, the fact that these profiles become personally identified allows for potential offline uses. Perhaps law enforcement authorities may want to know what stories you have been reading. Perhaps an employer would want to know what websites a prospective employee visits on their free time.

The pervasive nature of DoubleClick's profiling will also fundamentally change the online experience for the growing number of Internet users. One of the unique features of the Internet and the World Wide Web has been the non-discriminatory manner in which resources and products have been provided. In the current environment, single websites collect information about their customers behavior after they have established a business to customer relationship. DoubleClick's reach and scope allows them to use information collected about you without your knowledge on any of the thousands of websites on which they operate. DoubleClick could end the presumption of anonymity that most Internet users currently enjoy.

What should be done about DoubleClick?

EPIC's complaint filed with the Federal Trade Commission presents the following as relief for consumers that have been injured by DoubleClick's unfair and deceptive business practices:

A. Initiate an investigation into the information collection and advertising practices of DoubleClick and the Web sites on which DoubleClick places advertisements and/or generates cookies on the computers of Internet users;

B. Order DoubleClick to destroy all records it created concerning Internet users during any period of time in which DoubleClick or any of its business partners were assuring the anonymity of the information DoubleClick collected;

C. Order DoubleClick to obtain the express consent of any Internet user about whom DoubleClick intends to create a personally-identifiable record, and to develop such means as are necessary to ensure that the user has access to the complete contents of the record;

D. Order DoubleClick to pay a civil penalty equal to fifty percent (50%) of the revenues it obtained as a result of the practices described herein, or such other civil penalty as may be appropriate;

E. Permanently enjoin DoubleClick from violating the FTC Act, as alledged herein; and

F. Provide such other relief as the Commission finds necessary to redress injury to consumers resulting from DoubleClick's violations of the FTC Act.

DoubleClick's privacy practices are neither an isolated incident nor will it likely be the last. Online profiling of known users is clearly invasive and should end. Online profiling of unknown users may be acceptable if there is (a) a robust technology that maintains anonymity and (b) a legal framework that supports anonymity. Without such a legal framework, there are no reassurances that profiles that are collected under the promise of anonymity will stay that way.

EPIC strongly supports the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development's 1980 Privacy Guidelines as providing proper legal safeguards for privacy protection in the online and offline world.

Additional Resources

EPIC's Senate Testimony on Online Privacy from July 1999 (PDF)

Federal Trade Commission

Junkbusters News Page on Marketing and Privacy

Richard Smith's Page on Internet Privacy Issues

Questions

If your questions have not been sufficiently answered by this sheet, please e-mail us.

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