Groups Urge Web Tracking Inquiry

GROUPS URGE WEB TRACKING INQUIRY
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Christopher Conkey christopher.conkey@wsj.com and Robert Guth]
The Center for Digital Democracy and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group will today file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission urging the agency to examine technologies used by Microsoft and other online companies for possible violations of consumer privacy. "The FTC should long ago have sounded a very public alarm," the complaint reads, "concerning the data collection practices stemming from such fields as Web analytics, online advertising networks, behavioral targeting and [virtual reality media], all of which threaten the privacy of the U.S. public." While the filing highlighted Microsoft, the software giant is a recent entry in an area led by Google and Yahoo, which garner the majority of their revenue from online advertising. The vast amount of private information collected by Internet companies was spotlighted last year when the Justice Department demanded that Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Time Warner's AOL unit supply information about consumers' Web searches as part of a probe into how to protect children from online pornography. Google fought the department's action, arguing, in part, that it would jeopardize its users' private information. Ultimately a judge forced Google to hand over a portion of the information. Jeffrey Chester, the Center for Digital Democracy's executive director, said he is primarily concerned that consumers are ill-informed about how closely they are monitored when they surf the Web. Mr. Chester, whose complaints to the FTC 10 years ago helped shape the agency's view on how personally identifiable information of children can be acquired online, said he would like the FTC to push for legislation that would lead to better disclosures about data-sharing practices and force companies to ask consumers if they are willing to allow their Web activity to be shared with affiliates or marketers.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116235060894009808.html?mod=todays_us_ma...
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* See the filing at http://www.democraticmedia.org/PDFs/FTCadprivacy.pdf

* Group asks FTC to probe Web ads
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20061101/2b_privacy01.art.htm