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Privacy Groups Want Feds To Investigate Targeted Ads

Posted by Soulskill on from the brought-to-you-by-the-letter-h dept.

ciscoguy01 tips news that three privacy groups are asking the US Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether ad networks are "unfairly tracking Americans and profiting from their data." According to Wired, "Companies named in the complaint (PDF) include Google, Yahoo, PubMatic, TARGUSinfo, MediaMath, eXelate, Rubicon Project, AppNexus, and Rocket Fuel. At issue is a growing market of targeted, real-time ads, where advertisers can choose to show ads to people based on their age, gender, income and location — as well as their recent online behavior — often on unrelated sites that let third parties track users.... Third-party cookie tracking isn't new, but as the complaint points out, marketers are increasingly trying to augment that data with other data sets, such as the social network data that Rapleaf harvests and resells.... Tying ad cookies to personally identifiable data would let marketers successfully combine online and offline data on website visitors to build a complete digital dossier on a user."

3 of 71 comments (clear)

  1. Ads? by bernywork · · Score: 0, Troll

    What are these ads of which you speak?

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    Curiosity was framed; ignorance killed the cat. -- Author unknown
  2. Give me the good old days... by Jon.Burgin · · Score: 0, Troll

    when I received totally non-nonsensical adds for feminine hygiene products (I'm a man), dating services (I'm married...in the traditional sense), and other products I don't care about! This whole only having to see adds that I could possibly be interested in is way too much! BTW: Yes I get that the point is about privacy, but seriously, privacy is a fairly recent invention in human history that only is a convenience for the wicked or helps validate the prejudices of the ignorant. The truth is that privacy, although attractive to our weaker side, is an illusion and not truly a fundamental right.

  3. Re:Not Trolling ... by dimeglio · · Score: 1, Troll

    Not trolling either. If ads were informational - telling me what I can find, where and at the cheapest price - why would that be a bad thing? I was looking for a new cpu cooler, if the data they have on me would help me find one, I would be all for it. I think ads drive the economy and should only be controlled if they try to prevent access to choice. Seriously, people need to worry about other things.

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    Views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the author.