DoubleClick predicts more profiling of Internet users [priv]

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

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From: "Chuck Mauthe" <cmauthe () transcard com>
To: "'Politech'" <declan () well com>
Subject: Reuters Summit-Online Anonymity May Fade
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2004 11:03:33 -0500
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http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=reutersEdge&storyID=4438554

Wed Feb 25, 2004 04:18 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Online profiling in which consumers' names and
addresses are connected to their Internet habits could be in the works as
consumers begin to trust the Web more, Kevin Ryan, the chief executive of
Internet advertiser DoubleClick, said on Wednesday.

"There will be more targeting using this with customers having the ability
to opt out," Ryan told the Reuters Technology Media and Telecommunications
Summit in New York.

While DoubleClick has no immediate plans to link data on specific Internet
users to their online behavior at this time, it may come down the road, he
said.

Ryan suggested that privacy concerns have eased over the years, similar to
how many people have relaxed about using their credit cards online.

While people don't think twice now about using their credit cards for online
purchases, polls showed that Internet users in the late 1990s were more
afraid of fraud, he said.

"I said the same thing many, many years ago, that I thought privacy concerns
would follow the credit card fraud concerns," he said. "What happened was
the actual risk wasn't that great. In fact, people started to realize that
nothing is 100 percent safe ever."

In the early years of Internet advertising, DoubleClick was the subject of
several probes into its potential use of information gleaned about Internet
users from "cookies" -- small pieces of software that keep track of what Web
sites they visit.

...
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