WHO'S FOLLOWING YOUR WEB
SURFING?

Special Note

Information Contained on This Page..And Subsequent Pages Relative To Privacy.. Is Presented " Merely To Show" The Potentail Infringment(s) On Internet Subscribers Privacy. To Show That "The Capability Exists" to gather detailed Information ( Data ) on All Who Participate ( Purchase ) In the market Place "using the internet"

If you buy Airline tickets online at a site like WWW.travelcity.com, you must provide your name, address & telephone. Travelocity's privacy policy says that it shares your " private " information with airlines and the like, But ! That it wont sell your data to anyone else.

But Travelocity doesn't make it clear that it reports each visit you make to an ad network called DoubleClick. Say you surf from www.travelcity.com to www.healthcentral.com to read about hypertension. DoubleClick will know what sites you visited and maybe even what you did there.

DoubleClick can keep a file on the millions of user of the web sites in it's network, by placing a "Cookie" a unique identifier on the hard drive of each user's computer

The Cookie can be accessed electronically through the Ad Banners it places on it's clients web sites—Even if you never click on the ad ( Banner ).

DoubleClick is one of several companies snooping this way.Matchlogic, an ad network, has placed invisible images called "Transparent GIF's " on consumer sites that can send information to Matchlogic

Marketers say they aren't invading consumers privacy because ad banners don't gather personalty identifiable information. The leading online ad networks recently formed the Network Advertising Initiative to educate consumers about company practices. Members say they will soon let people opt out of online profiling. Meanwhile, the Federal Trade Commission is considering whether to let industry continue to regulate itself.

Information may not be personally identifiable now, but it could be paired with names and address obtained elsewhere.

Some sites with DoubleClick banners send surprisingly personal information to DoubleClick computers.

The Business Research site www.edgar-online.com tells DoubleClick the stock ticker symbol of each corporation you research.

America Online can track consumers according to lifestyle as they move about AOL. It sells that feature to advertisers.

Note: You can opt out of DoubleClick by altering your computers cookie file so your habits can't be profiled. Click Here To Visit

DoubleClick postpones data-merging plan... March 2, 2000,...Bowing to pressure from privacy advocates and consumers, online advertising giant DoubleClick today said it will hold off on plans to combine online and offline data that it collects on consumers.
announcement does not mean the company has given up on the plan. Rather, DoubleClick has pledged only to delay moving forward until new guidelines on privacy are hammered out between government and industry.


Doubleclicks management states that "The absence of standards has led to confusion and uncertainty,". "We need clarity to get rid of the uncertainty."

While privacy advocates today cautiously celebrated what they called a victory in their long standing dispute with DoubleClick, some said there is a long way to go in guarding consumer privacy online. For specifics Click Here

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