Technologies used by Microsoft and other online advertising outfits to analyze user behavior threaten privacy and must be curbed, a pair of advocacy groups said Wednesday.
The Washington-based U.S. Public Interest Research Group and the Center for Digital Democracy have asked the Federal Trade Commission to review–and ideally restrict–what they describe as a growing online business model dependent on technologies that “aggressively track us wherever we go, creating data profiles to be used in ever-more sophisticated and personalized ‘one-to-one’ targeting schemes.”
“Consumers entering this new online world are neither informed of nor prepared for these technologies and techniques–including data gathering and mining, audience targeting and tracking–that render users all but defenseless before the sophisticated assault of new-media marketing,” the groups charged in a 50-page complaint (click for PDF) filed with the FTC.
Even if ad networks don’t rely on what would traditionally be considered “personally identifiable information,” such as a person’s name, companies effectively know enough about users to track every move they make, erasing the possibility of truly anonymous browsing, the groups argued.
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