Newspapers Argue For First Amendment Right to Snoop on Readers

Here's an excerpt from a new Bits Blog entry by Saul Hansell on April 14th.

The newspaper industry is now arguing that the First Amendment protects its right to follow users around the Internet so it can charge higher prices on advertising.

This argument was made in a filing by Newspaper Association of America commenting on the Federal Trade Commission’s proposal that the companies involved in advertising that uses what is called behavioral targeting create a self-regulatory code that limits their use of sensitive information.

To see the full article go to Newspapers Argue For First Amendment Right to Snoop on Readers.

How Should I.S.P.s Tell You if They Want to Track Your Surfing?

This was published by Saul Hansell in The Bits Blog to The New York Times.

The term “unavoidable notice” has been bandied about by a group of Internet advertising executives recently as they explored whether to endorse proposals for Internet service providers to keep track of where their customers surfed and what they searched for ....

To view the full blog entry go to How Should I.S.P.s Tell You if They Want to Track Your Surfing?

NebuAd Observes ‘Useful, but Innocuous’ Web Browsing

Saul Hansell authored this Bits Blog on the New York Times website on April 7, 2008.

Here's an excerpt:

"Of all the companies building advertising systems based on data gathered from Internet service providers, the one that is farthest along in the United States is NebuAd.

Robert Dykes, a long time Silicon Valley executive who started the company two years ago, says it has been up and running since last fall and will soon be monitoring the activities of 10 percent of Internet users in the country, mainly customers of small and medium Internet service providers." (emphasis added)

For the complete article, navigate to NebuAd Observes ‘Useful, but Innocuous’ Web Browsing.

Can an Eavesdropper Protect Your Privacy?

Saul Hansell authored a Bits Blog on the New York Times website on April 3, 2008.

Here's an excerpt:

"I wrote last month about a new crop of companies that is likely to spawn what I called 'the mother of all privacy battles.' These companies put devices inside the data centers of Internet service providers to gather information about every Web site the I.S.P.’s users visit. Their goal is to use this data to display advertising related to what people might want to buy.

That post prompted calls from two of those companies, Phorm and NebuAd, with invitations to learn more about their systems. [....] Their messages were the same: these systems are actually designed to protect the privacy of Internet users more than most of the methods used for targeting advertising today. [...] Meanwhile the Federal Trade Commission has proposed guidelines for behavioral targeting of online advertising. Comments are due April 11."

 For the compelete article see Can an Eavesdropper Protect Your Privacy?