The Electronic Privacy Information Center, a Washington, DC, privacy advocacy and research group, plans to file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission contending that DoubleClick deceived its network members by changing its policies after DoubleClick’s merger with Abacus Online, Marc Rotenberg, director of EPIC, told DIRECT Newsline.
DoubleClick is an Internet advertising provider, which tracks shopping patterns and favorite sites of members anonymously. When opting in to DoubleClick’s network, members were told that DoubleClick would not link their personally identifiable information with whatever interest category they signed up for.
But in purchasing the consumer co-op catalog database, DoubleClick acquired 3 billion transaction records, representing 90 million households. EPIC contends that DoubleClick can now track consumer behavior by name and join it with their online activity. Because the company did not get permission to use the Abacus data, “they have been deceptive,” said Rotenberg.
The complaint is to be filed with the FTC in mid-February, Rotenberg said.
DoubleClick executives could not be reached at press time.
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