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Thinking About Privacy? We Know You Have, Because it's in your Cookies

Posted by Daniel Shain

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Recently the FTC sat down at a roundtable to discuss "the privacy challenges posed by the vast array of 21st century technology and business practices that collect and use consumer data." In layman's terms, they were talking about the legitimacy of targeted ads.

If you're an internet privacy advocate, this has probably been a good week for you. Last week we talked about a privacy tool designed by the CDT (Center for Democracy and Technology) for websites that are perceived to be invading your privacy, and on Monday Yahoo divulged a new method for users to control the ads targeted at them ahead of the FTC's roundtable. We'll talk a little bit more about that below.

In the end, the roundtable discussions were just that - discussions. No major policies were enacted, but it certainly raised the profile of the issue. Advertisers mostly held that consumers were smarter than they're given credit for and prefer the targeted ads, but advocates maintained that the landscape of privacy policies was confusing even to a savvy consumer and needs to be revised, and that the new measures some companies are enacting only go halfway. Some quotations from the NYT article on the subject I liked:

"Linda A. Woolley, executive vice president for government affairs at the Direct Marketing Association, an industry trade group, said consumers could easily erase cookies or reset privacy settings on their browser. "If you’re of a mind to do private browsing, and doing everything anonymously, the tools are out there," she said.

But others say the onus should not be on end users."

Agreed. Not only is the argument not entirely true (flash cookies, anyone?), but the default situation shouldn't be one that could be considered invasive. Even companies like Yahoo and Google that allow one to opt out don't go far enough - I'd like to see this become an opt-in practice.

On Google's categorization info/opt out page,

"We had the assumption that people who were interested in privacy and were going to visit the site would all be opting out,” he said, but that was not the case... For every one person who opts out, four people change the categories they have fallen into, and 10 people do nothing... Many consumers do understand there is a bargain here."

But Mr. Turow argued that Mr. Davidson was presenting its privacy pages as too innocuous.

"What is not shown in this kind of thing, and possibly because Google doesn’t do this sort of thing — maybe because they don’t implement it yet — are the various kinds of psychographic, demographic activities that go on behind the screens"

I suppose I understand the "bargain" that people would rather have targeted ads, which are theoretically helpful, than have Google start charging for services. But I can't help feeling unsettled by the concerns that the information could be used for more nefarious purposes which are not disclosed. I don't want to assume the bargain, I want it explained, and I look forward to legislation passing that will help make this clear.

It should be noted that to opt out of Google's targeted ads is somewhat complex. Clicking "opt-out" on the ads page will indeed opt you out, but a 6 point disclaimer is added which basically explains the opt-out is only partial, and that the next time you use this or any other browser to access the internet you will be automatically opted back in. The only way to avoid that is to download and install a plug-in. With Yahoo's ads page, an opt-out is truly an opt out. It doesn't seem like Google to be the one giving you the run around with this stuff, but then again, Google is nothing without its ads.

Update: if you manually delete your cookies Yahoo's opt-out will be erased too - Yahoo accounts can select "persistent opt-out," to avoid this, no download required.

Further reading: FTC roundtable website, including dates for future additional roundtables.

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Comments

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