Doubleclick Privacy Suit Settlement Approved

behrman writes: "This Yahoo-hosted version of a C|Net article announces that Doubleclick is now allowed to settle the class-action privacy suit against it. Terms include purging databases of personal information, hiring a third-party company to ensure compliance, running a 33-million-banner-ad privacy education campaign, and requiring opt-in for future marketing data collection. This makes the preliminary approval from two months ago offical. Other (older) stories: Privacy groups oppose the settlement, and the settlement is proposed."

Comments

Unpunished?

[kilroy_hau]

So it goes like this:

DoubleClick was charged with violating state and federal laws by surreptitiously tracking and collecting consumers' personally identifiable data and combining it with information on their Web surfing habits.

But they agreed to delete this information after they were caught, so everything is ok now, isn't it?

What if somebody steals money?. Would he avoid jail just by returning the money after he is caught?

What if a hacker lets loose a virus but deletes the source on his machine after he is caught?