• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, December 1, 2008

The AT&T-backed think tank Future of Privacy Forum has launched its first initiative: a campaign warning consumers how search engines store their queries and marketers use online cookies.

"You may not be aware that when you visit a site you're actually a part of a complex advertising and marketing mechanism," the group cautions. "Very few things on the Internet are completely anonymous."

The group goes on to instruct people about options to enhance privacy. The advice includes directives to delete cookies and use Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8 browser -- which includes a feature that can block the cookies that track users across sites for ad-serving purposes. The organization also suggests that searchers use IAC's Ask Eraser, which deletes some log files tying search queries to IP addresses.

With these recommendations, the group appears to be setting itself up as close to the polar opposite of industry organizations like Safecount or the Network Advertising Initiative. Safecount, founded in 2005 in response to reports that users routinely deleted cookies, touted their benefits. "Cookies help advertisers understand if their ads are working, and they help researchers make accurate counts through the surveys they invite you and other consumers to participate in. ... In most cases, it's this advertising that enables us all to visit and access our favorite websites for free," Safecount says on its site.

Additionally, AT&T has gone on record as favoring an opt-in model to behavioral advertising, or serving ads to people based on their Web-surfing activity. The company not only says it intends to require opt-in consent for behavioral targeting, but also believes all companies should obtain users' explicit consent before tracking them online. This stance is at odds with groups like the Network Advertising Initiative or Interactive Advertising Bureau, which typically call on companies to notify users about tracking and allow them to opt out.

Separately, while the Future of Privacy Forum, hasn't mentioned Google by name, it's becoming increasingly clear that the think tank is no fan of the world's largest search engine. This stance isn't a huge surprise when you consider the group is backed by AT&T -- which, like other ISPs, has been at odds with Google about both net neutrality and privacy.

In general, network operators say they should be able to decide how to manage traffic, while Google is one of the biggest advocates of net neutrality, or the principle that ISPs should treat all traffic equally. Some ISPs, like Verizon, have made it clear they specifically resent Google profiting off of Web visits they enable.

Privacy advocates in general have criticized Google for its decision to store IP logs tying search queries to specific IP addresses. Among other reasons, there's a concern that Google would combine records about search activity with information gleaned from other sources about which Web sites people visit to create profiles that would be used for marketing purposes.

The Future of Privacy Forum suggestion that searches use Ask.com's Ask Eraser indicate that it, too, isn't happy about the sheer quantity of data that Google has on hand about Web users. If nothing else, the recommendation seems designed to intensify scrutiny of the company and its data collection practices.