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Ziff Davis Secretly Paying Sites To Track Users
First time accepted submitter jonez450 writes "Times are tough in the advertising business. But PCMag publisher Ziff Davis has come up with a new plan to gain a competitive edge: Paying other tech sites $1 CPM to place tracking code on their sites in return for data about their users via JavaScript. The company is also offering free content in return, but the 'private' Ziff Davis Tech Co-Op doesn't want anyone to know what they are up to."
Update: 09/15 13:32 GMT by T : Reader jbrodkin writes in with an appreciated correction:
"Ziff Davis doesn't publish PC World. they do something called PC Mag. as a former IDG employee, I can tell you there is a difference ;-)" Story has been updated to reflect -- thanks.
It's a lot better offer than Google gives. In return to tracking all the users on your site, Google only gives you statistics about them. At the same time Google can track 95% of the internet - including slashdot.
PC World is published by IDG. Ziff Davis published PCMag.
"on their sites in return for data about their users via JavaScript. "
Is there anyone left who blindly runs code from random sites on their machine? That's pretty much a stupid thing to do these days. It isn't just tracking, it can even end up with malware on windows machines.
So given that a person is smart enough to use their computer in a semi-safe manner and not run random crap that random web pages want them to run, this tracking is not a threat.
How do I sign up? I want to make money from doing no work.
chromium + ghostery
Were /. privvy to this offer?
only club of some of the best tech sites
probably not, ho ho ho
...where is the marketing value in tracking the demographic band that covers people too witless to block such things (cookies, random javascript, etc.). Don't get me wrong, I'm sure that value is there. I'm just intrigued by what one would do with it. Surely the marketing people for that publisher realize that they've built in that demographic skew through... Oh, right. "Marketing" people...
Wow, good thing I use NoScript to block all incoming JavaScript crap and just whitelist the sites i trust. I would recommend others to do the same (and no, i am in no way affiliated with the firm).
Is that so many sites are so cross scripted/integrated these days that sometimes you have to allow places you otherwise wouldn't in order for content to display. Nobody hosts their own content these days, esp. media.
I've been on a few(!) of their mailing lists which after a year or so of bullshyte from them I clicked the link to 'unsubscribe' (this is on Yahoo, important to note) and yet they still show up in my inbox. Most spam I block on Yahoo dies pretty quickly. When I 'unsubscribed' from ZD news my incoming spam blossomed a thousandfold at least.
Yahoo still blocks most spam pretty well, but they refuse to block ZD spam. I've made the mistake of reporting it directly to ZD, and I've also written Yahoo directly. It still comes into my inbox, I mark it as spam every day.
Meh, it's my anonymous email address, could be worst crap coming in...
I think this is harmless. What is worse is those ad networks (you know the ones I am talking about) that regularly allow tainted ads onto their networks. Or sites that don't patch WP, PHP or other installations properly. The list goes on.
Never email donotemail@WeAreSpammers.com
What's the difference if say:
A) You go to a site, and its privacy policy says, "we collect anonymous data and sell it to advertisers".
B) Same thing, except the advertiser collects it directly.
These sites that are willing to sell the data are, surprise surprise, already collecting it. But rather than selling it out as a CD set, they will sell a direct pipeline.
The names have changed, but the game's the same.
I8-D
Well I think they can now forget that idea.... Lets slashdot it...
...it is called BuyerBase and they aren't the only ones in the market doing it. Take a look at BlueKai or Exelate for much broader examples.
Ziff David is one of the most corrupted and evil publishers in the industry. The fuck over everybody who isn't in upper management repeatedly. Making money is their bottom line and they'll break any law to do so. They routinely plagiarize work from other publications and "free" material on the Internet.
Can't wait to see those assholes go out of business.
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Remember, this story isn't about Google but the brand new Slashdoter got the FP and tries and steer the conversation that way. Is this how you want Slashdot to exist? PR companies with paid shills steering the conversation in every story? If you want your discussions back, help out theses shills and mod them down for being who they are and what they are trying to do. Ignore the quality of the point he is making and understand he is being paid to subtley suggest Google is bad. Are they bad? Maybe, but that's a topic for a discussion, not for a PR peon to tell us.
Outed again, time to run off and register a new handle.
ge7 (2194648)- newly registered ms shill
zget (2395308)- newly registered ms shill
cgeys - newly registered ms shill
boncho (sp?) - one of the main troll accounts
*x**y*y**x* (sp?)- newly registered ms shill
Bring back EGM!
obviously a bot.