Who's Watching You on the Web?

Profiling Brouhaha

Because DoubleClick and Abacus can link anonymous profiling data with specific e-mail addresses, privacy groups petitioned the Federal Trade Commission to block their merger. Though the petition failed, concerns about online profiling haven't fallen on deaf ears. Last November the FTC and the Commerce Department held a workshop on the practice for industry representatives, legal experts, and consumer and privacy groups.

At the workshop, online advertisers announced their Network Advertising Initiative, a coalition of key industry players developing privacy guidelines for profiling. "The important thing is that consumers are clear on what's happening and that they have choices about whether to participate or not," says Jonathan Shapiro, senior vice president of DoubleClick/Abacus Online. Shapiro adds that DoubleClick has committed not to track sensitive information like medical data, sexual preferences, and activities related to children.

But few Web surfers visit the corporate sites of profiling companies, where opt-out features and detailed privacy policies are posted. Instead, the popular sites with which these companies partner--Autobytel.com, CNN, Travelocity, and many, many others--should include discussions of profiling in their privacy policies and links to the corporate Web sites of the profiling companies they use. Currently, these sites provide no such information.

Take Action

Ultimately, it's your responsibility to understand profiling and decide what information you're willing to share. Be very cautious about Web sweepstakes. Read the fine print and make sure that you know how the data you provide will be used. Check with Junkbusters and CDT for extensive information about online profiling and privacy. Junkbusters also includes information about software tools that let consumers surf the Web more or less anonymously. (You can find our tips for maintaining privacy on the Web here.) You're also well advised to read the privacy statements on the corporate sites of Web advertising companies like DoubleClick, Engage, and MatchLogic. You can opt out of the companies' databases if you don't like how they use data about you. From then on, they won't track your browser activity, and you won't receive targeted ads.

Both Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer accept all cookies by default. At a minimum, consider customizing your browser to notify you of cookie requests. You can also turn off cookies completely, but this may prevent you from accessing some sites at all.

It's hard to imagine anything more personal than information about our buying habits, our interests, and ourselves. Some consumers like the targeted marketing and special offers that come with online profiling. Others find the practice invasive, even frightening.

Either way, the decision to share that data should be yours to make.