Several Internet and broadband companies admit that they use targeted-advertising technology to track Web-surfing behavior without explicitly informing users.
The disclosures were made in letters to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which released them to the public on August 11. The letters came in response to a bipartisan Congressional inquiry into how online companies gather data to target customers.
Some lawmakers said the revelations highlight the need for an overarching Internet privacy law. “Increasingly, there are no limits technologically as to what a company can do in terms of collecting information . . . and then selling it as a commodity to other providers,” said committee member Edward J. Markey (D-Massachusetts). “Our responsibility is to make sure that we create a law that, regardless of the technology, includes a set of legal guarantees that consumers have with respect to their information.”
Markey said he plans to introduce an online privacy Bill of Rights next year that would prohibit companies from tracking the online behavior of users and collecting and sharing personal data without users’ explicit consent. He added that any legislation should require explicitly notifying consumers of the type of information being gathered, any intent to use it for a purpose other than advertising, and a right to opt out of its collection or use.
In its letter to committee Chairman John Dingell (D-Michigan), Markey, Representative Cliff Stearns (R-Florida), and Representative Joe L. Barton (R-Texas), Google Inc. said it had launched a “DoubleClick ad-serving cookie,” a computer code that allows Web-surf tracking. In the letter, Google said that users could opt out of a single cookie for both DoubleClick and the Google content network. The company also said that it was not yet focusing on behavioral advertising, in which ads are targeted according to data gathered by tracking Web-surfing behavior.