Privacy Groups Want Feds to Investigate Targeted Ads

Companies named in the complaintinclude Google, Yahoo, PubMatic, TARGUSinfo, MediaMath, eXelate, Rubicon Project, AppNexus and Rocket Fuel.

Third-party cookie tracking isn’t new — but as the complaint points out, marketers are increasingly trying to augment that data with other data sets — such as the social network data that Rapleaf harvests and re-sells.

Google has long held that its model of displaying ads based on the content of a web page or search term trumped the advantages of user tracking, but entered that market as well after it purchased the display ad giant, DoubleClick. However, the company says its advertising cookies and tracking are separate from users’ account cookies, so its advertising database does not know your real name or Google login credentials.

Tying ad cookies to personally identifiable data would let marketers successfully combine online and offline data on website visitors to build a complete digital dossier on a user.

Article: http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/04/privacy-groups-want-feds-to-inves...

_____

I just had an experience where it didn't matter what website I went to (I do a lot of web surfing) I was displayed the same google ad or at least the pages showed it as a google ad. My computer did not show a virus or malware on my computer but I did begin to wonder. It was for a website I had visited and had its cookie on my computer. The ad seems to now have stopped being served at so many different websites. It was weird.

But look, say websites serve ads based on "data" on where people have surfed. Some people may be more inclined to click an ad as a short cut if it is to a site they already visit. Still, how does that benefit an advertiser for paying for a click from someone who is already going to their website.

Television and radio and even newspaper ads have always served to get customers to want something they didn't know they wanted or hadn't thought about wanting in a while.

"Look, honey that widget is on sale now. You know that widget. Oh shut the fuck up. I am going to buy it anyway."

I don't really know what the answer is on internet advertising. My opinion is that advertisers should pay per impression from unique visitors or pay a commission.

There is no denying that google has made a fortune from their ad system and the rules they put in place. A lot of people swear by google's ad system. At times I've benefited from advertising with google and at times it was largely pointless.

I think though, if lines are being crossed in serving ads based on a person's surfing history that is both an invasion of privacy and actually cheats the advertiser.