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DoubleClick Settles Privacy Lawsuit
daemon lover writes "DoubleClick settles lawsuit and agrees to delete consumer information. " There really isn't a lot of substance in the
article beyond saying that they will adhere to a stricter privacy policy besides
purging their db.
There really isn't a lot of substance in the article beyond saying that they will adhere to a stricter privacy policy besides purging their db.
i t/press-releases.asp?asp_object_1=&press%5Frelease %5Fid=2584)
OK, I'll do your damn research.
"As part of this agreement, DoubleClick has agreed to adhere to the following practices and policies:
Clear Notice: The company's privacy policy will include easy-to-read explanations of its online ad serving services.
Enhanced Choice: If the company collects personally identifiable information, previously collected clickstream obtained by the company from across web sites can only be combined with the personally identifiable information after the provision of clear and conspicuous notice to the Internet user and receipt of the Internet user's opt-in choice.
Consumer Education: The company will undertake a consumer education effort, which includes 300 million consumer privacy banner ads that invite consumers to learn more about how to protect their online privacy. Over the last two years, the company has already voluntarily delivered 100 million ads relating to consumer privacy.
Consistency: The company will ensure that an Internet user's online data will not be used in a manner materially inconsistent with the privacy policy under which it was collected, unless the consumer has given permission to do otherwise. The company will take steps to require that a successor to DoubleClick's business does not use Internet users' online data in a manner inconsistent with the privacy policy under which that data was collected.
Purging of Data and Cookie Life: The company will institute internal policies to ensure the protection and routine purging of data collected online. The company will also purge online data it obtained during the course of testing the manner in which online and offline data could be merged. The company has also agreed to limit to five years the life of new ad serving cookies.
Settlement Compliance: A nationally recognized independent accounting firm will conduct annual reviews for the next two years of DoubleClick's compliance with specified terms of the settlement, expanding on DoubleClick's current auditing program with PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Legal Fees: Legal fees and costs of up to $1.8 million will be paid by the company. In the third quarter of 2001, DoubleClick publicly announced that it had accounted for this charge as part of its operating expenses."
(per http://www.doubleclick.com:80/us/corporate/pressk
The First Site I Visit Every Morning
In other news, the start-up 2*Click has announced that it will begin offering a new, centralized banner advertising service to Internet web sites.
http://settlement.doubleclick.net/settlement/
The First Site I Visit Every Morning
...DoubleClick settles lawsuit and agrees to delete consumer information ....
;)
Is this before or after selling their list
-- everyones not everybody and neither is everybody like everyone.
....these guys should be put out of business....
let everyone in the DoubleClick database file DMCA charges against them.....or illegal copyright infringement on personal information collected without their expressed written consent.......
I'm getting really tired of businesses being able to collect whatever stuff on me that they want...but as soon as I start collecting MP3's....they start crying foul.....
Put all of them out of business with law-suits.
Isn't it amazing how corporate America can tell you one thing and mean something completely different? And they have buildings full of people who spend all their time engineering these misunderstandings?
And a sigh of releif is heard by all those late night surfers...
That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
It sounds to me like the only people winning here are the lawyers. They are the ones who get the little money there is in that settlement, not the people whose personal information DoubleClick already distributed.
On a side note, simply put lines in your hosts file setting *.doubleclick.net to 127.0.0.1 and you never get anything from them.
That was a blurb...there was hardly any info.
Be sure to visitPrivacy Policy
and...the settlement settlement.doubleclick.net
Interesting that they have a whole subdomain dedicated to this!
That way, it won't time out, but will instantly return a 404.
Fight Spammers!
These people apparently give me lots of cookies... and cookies are sweet delicious things right? mmm... cookies...
All of your advertisements are hosted by double click.
The only site I visit regularly that serves doubleclick ads is...slashdot.
How 'bout that?
Writers imply. Readers infer.
Printer: $50
Enough paper to print out total of collected consumer information: $8,000
A way to get around losing valuable information to a lawsuit: Priceless.
Capitalism Express, some things trickery can't buy, for everything else, well, you just don't need it anyway.
-1, Disagree is not a valid option. Troll, Flamebait and Offtopic are not a substitute.
I never really noticed doubleclick being the ad host for slashdot. I always wondered why there were goatse banner ads on CNN and other doubleclick sites, now I know why. Thanks!
..kinda sexy ain't it?
Which database are they purging? Is it their only one or are there other databases with different data? Do they have backups? Who have they already sold the data to? Will whoever they sold that data to also delete it?
You guys should really try Jedi Knight II. Oh, wait. The closest Linux & JK get together is the dedicated server binary. No love for the slashbot fags!
Shame, too. There's a nude Amidala skin going around I'm sure you'd all enjoy. If you had the time to reboot!
As an aside, I also had your sister last night. In the pooper, too!
Just curious. I'm still fuzzy on why anybody's worried about information being collected. So far, the only problem I've had with it is now my email address is recieving 'special offers!' a couple of times a day.
I'm not trying to tell anybody their concerns are unjustified, I'm seriously curious as to what I should be concerned about. In other words, if I take a stand against Double Click, I'd like to be educated as to why. That's all.
"Derp de derp."
Do we have a resource with more info on this issue?
DRM? No thanks, I'll just get it somewhere else...
There's a killer robot clone on the loose and he looks like Queen Elizabeth. BEWARE!!!
Comment removed based on user account deletion
"We will destroy those databases and do everything possible to protect privacy. Valuing the privacy is a core commitment to us and we go through great lengths to keep people from being personally identified"
Farther down in the settlement (and perhaps diluted evenly throughout several pages of dross) would be:
"Since our databases are spread out across so many machines in different places, and on redundant backups, we will do our best to purge personnal information from all of them. We agree to delete all personal identifyable information from the information sources that we are aware of at this time"
"There are times one of our trusted partners will need access to certain selected information and only under those situations will we release personnal information"
... dont... ...how bout instead of using frivolous lawsuits we tell em what we think of them the way the system wants us to... ... with our money... dont support them or those that support them... itll be hard sure but its also harder to watch hipocracy...
...so remember to think about the bigger consequences of what you propose before you try to represent an otherwise valid argument
you say we should sue them frivolously and yet most of the people with the same opinion as that usually also cry foul when a company sues someone that we would like to support...
unzip; strip; touch; finger; mount; fsck; more; yes; unmount; sleep
well i wouldnt know, i've had doubleclick (or as i call em, doublefag) on my hosts file for years now, it maps to 127.0.0.1 ; ))))))
Lawyers, MBA's, RIAA? A jedi fears not these things!
If you block DoubleClick ads, surely you must be robbing /. of its ad revenue in some way...
Yeah, I'm sure we can believe DC's word on this one, as they've been so helpful and honest in the past.
Lawyer: So we need to comply with this agreement as soon as possible.
DC VP: Sure, no problem. Hey Phil, delete the database, ok?
Tech: Alright, here we go...
*clickety click*
Tech: OK, it's all wiped out boss.
Later that afternoon...
DC VP: Got that backup of the DB restored yet Phil?
Tech: Almost done, just another GB to go...
-- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
rm -f /bin/laden
/bin/laden".
In order to completely destroy him and his organization, you should change that to "rm -rf
Mmmm.. Donuts
But what about the backup tapes?
Hmmm, maybe it helps if you have a peek at the pages delivered by slashdot before claiming they cooperate with doubleclick:
Slashdot banners are solely served via images.slashdot.org, so if you redirect *.doubleclick.net, that doesn't make any difference for slashdot, or anybydy else wo has their own advertising system.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Slow timeouts occur when it can't resolve the *host*. With 127.0.0.1, the host resolves *immediately*. The attempted connection will then fail, also essentially immediately, because there is no application listening on port 80.
If you don't believe me try it yourself (this will work in Windows and in Linux): open a command prompt, and type "telnet localhost 80" or "telnet 127.0.0.1 80" and see how long it takes to fail (this mimics exactly what your web browser would be trying to do).
I've been checking out the URLs to popups I get so I can block their host names, forward them to 127.0.0.1 I noticed when going to tripod websites, the popups were sending a little bit more info than I care to give out. Now I usually don't give a damn about privacy. Because it's mostly anonymous and doesn't matter to me whatsoever. But these sometimes get very specific.. ln/memberpopup;kw =quake+3+console+commands+timedemo;h=misc;sz=468x6 0;ord=153227739823552?
a dmap.shtml? member_name=iron_mousey&path=updates.html&client_i p=63.205.211.142&ts=1017517610&ad_type=POPUP&categ ory=ent&search_string=tripod+pr0n&id=630279c715479 b78319b5f1116d96f5e
//it is a frame
//do nothing
//popup or top level page
In google, I did a search for "quake 3 console commands timedemo" I found one page on a tripod members website, popup came up. I look at the URL to the popup, and lookydo, tripod is sending the entire search string that I was looking for at Google.com to doubleclick.net
http://ln.doubleclick.net/adi/tr
To do a test on it, I searched for "tripod pr0n" came up with this result. Not only does it have my google search string, but my IP address (not that this matters, doubleclick gets it automatically when I download the banner, why is it in the URL?!) Along with the specific member I'm visiting and the specific webpage on his site I'm visiting.
http://members.tripod.com/adm/popup/ro
For those of you doing the HOSTS file adding 127.0.0.1 ad.doubleclick.net thing.... Here's a 404.html file that I wrote up. Basically set this file as the 404 file to your webserver. It'll automatically close pop-ups for you.
<script>
var done;
done = false;
if (parent) {
if (parent.href) {
done = true;
}
}
//if ((!done) && (self.location.href==top.location.href)) {
if ((!done) && (self==top)) {
self.close();
}
</script>
<!--
This is crap for IIS. For some stupid reason, the file needs to be of a certain size.
The Javascript above does not count as enough data for a 404 file? Odd.
insert dummy data here until 404 file works properly.
moo
blah
cow
moo
blah
cow
-->