Facebook, Google, Yahoo Fight "Do Not Track" Privacy Measures

There's growing social and legal momentum behind the "do not track" initiative to protect online privacy, but now some of the biggest names in tech are opposing the legislation, hinting that job losses and profit cuts could be the result. Are they being totally honest?

The key part of this to consider are the words "business model." Google and Facebook pretty much own the online ads business between them. A key part of this is highly targeted advertising based on key data on individual subscribers--acquired through systems like cookies, historical archives of web searches, or which sites users visit and log in to via Facebook Connect. The Do Not Track bill threatens this income, as many users could press a button and disconnect Google and Facebook (and other firms like Microsoft) from potential revenue streams. Apple is also an indirect signatory on the objections letter, possibly due to its interest in iAds--its new high-tech ad platform on iOS devices -- and other future ad-related plans the firm has, leveraging off increasing use of its iPhones and iPads. Would a Do Not Track button really put users at risk of security breaches, though? Surely a database of user profiled behaviors is actually more risky -- as the Sony hack is ably demonstrating right now. How about the TV business -- it doesn't track all the individual viewers, but it manages to bring in billions in advertising revenues by profiling ads in other ways. It's possible to make a case using these, and other, arguments that a Do Not Track law may actually encourage innovation in the online ad space.