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Ads With Your Name On Them

Posted by kdawson on from the are-you-creeped-out-yet dept.

eldavojohn writes "The NYTimes is running an interesting blog piece on the answers Microsoft, AOL, Yahoo, & Google gave to the question: Can they show you an ad with your name on it? The results: 'Microsoft says it could use only a person's first name [which it doesn't consider personal information]. AOL and Yahoo could use a full name but only on their sites, not the other sites on which they place ads. Google isn't sure; it probably could, but it doesn't know the names of most of its users.' Now whether or not they would use this information is a different story. AOL has no plans to, Yahoo is open to it, and Microsoft has implemented a technological barrier preventing it (despite behavioral and demographic data being served to the ad companies). Although Google might use name information at some point, they don't now do so; nor do they use behavioral or demographic data."

3 of 153 comments (clear)

  1. Sounds scary by flaming+error · · Score: 5, Insightful

    But the real problem isn't that they can *show* who you are, it's that they *know* who you are.

    Showing it would just be disclosing our already existing vulnerability.

  2. Coming Soon ... by daveime · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Well now that the EU have approved the Google / Doubleclick merger, expect ads VERY soon with your name on them ... and possibly a lot more.

  3. Re:Mobil card ms are NUTS... by Your.Master · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How can ms claim a person's GIVEN name is NOT personal? Sound's like they've got too much duroquinone in their brains. The NERVE of them to assert a thing. This is the problem with secondary sources, they make the slightest change in wording and people interpret it so differently.

    Microsoft does not say that your first name is not personal information. Their policy prevents the spread of personally identifiable information, which they define as information which could be used by theirselves or others to connect data (including your first name) to you, the individual. Now, using your first name might be a little dodgy in that you might be the only person in the world with the same first name. But generally speaking, you cannot match a person to their data with only first names.