Commentary

Just an Online Minute... DC's New Ad Policy

One of the things that went almost unnoticed this week was DoubleClick’s announcement that they will adhere to stiff privacy restrictions and pay a $450,000 settlement, all to ward off a 30-month investigation into its practices of gathering Web users' personal information and surfing habits.

As you may remember, the investigation stemmed from DoubleClick's announcement in early 2000 that it would use personal profiles to match ads with consumers' surfing habits. Various litigants and the FTC quickly pounced on the issue, causing DoubleClick to quickly abandon the plan. The company subsequently agreed to adopt privacy disclosure standards and pay $1.8 million in legal fees to settle the related class action lawsuit.

Now DoubleClick has agreed to the terms of the latest settlement, promising to adopt privacy-related restrictions that include giving consumers access to their online profiles, verifying its compliance with the agreement and paying another $450,000 for states' investigative costs and consumer education. The agreement says that sites that allow DoubleClick to profile its visitors must disclose DoubleClick's activities in the site's privacy policy, and that the ad provider will not share user data collected on behalf of one of its clients without that client's permission.

Apparently, DoubleClick is also working on a cookie viewer that will allow any given Web surfer to see the interest categories the company uses in tailoring ads that surfer views.

Privacy advocates, naturally, are happy with the deal, saying the settlement will serve as a precedent for other advertisers who want to avoid similar investigations. Also, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, whose office led the original probe, said the settlement could “help rebuild confidence in e-commerce.”

Let's hope he's right.

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